Danielle Zamora thought she wanted to be a lawyer. Raised in a small town in Essex, an hour outside of London, she would have been the first person in her family to go to university. But as she learned more about what law school entailed—years of general study before getting to the subjects she was really interested in—she began to question her decision.
That's when she stumbled on a listing for a data apprenticeship on the Morgan Stanley Equity Research team. The 18-month program would pay her a full-time wage, provide extensive on-the-job training and culminate in a Level 4 qualification—what would be considered a year of college credit in the U.S. Upon completion, she would also be eligible to apply for a full-time role at Morgan Stanley, building on everything she had learned. “I thought it sounded too good to be true," says Zamora. “I'd always assumed that you had to go to university and then complete a graduate program to work at a place like Morgan Stanley."
Zamora started her application that night, and a few months later, she was accepted into the inaugural 2020 class of apprentices at Morgan Stanley's London office, the newest addition to the company's steadily expanding apprenticeship program.