The Apprentice Hike.
One walk. One Saturday. A group of strangers who'll know each other by the time you're back at the cars. No experience needed, no kit-list anxiety. Show up, walk together, eat together, head home with a camera roll full of people who get it.
What it is.
The Apprentice Hike is a day out in the hills, run for and by young people in the early years of their working life. Apprentices, uni students, young professionals, anyone between 16 and 30 who wants to get off a screen for a day.
We pick a beginner-friendly route somewhere worth the drive. On the day, we split into pace groups by ability, each led by someone from the team. Steady, mid, quick. Nobody gets dropped, nobody gets bored waiting around. Along the way you get the view. At the end you get a smash burger off the BBQ and a long lunch in the grass.
The whole thing is structured to make new connections feel easy. You'll start the day talking to one person and end it on a WhatsApp group with twenty.
Why we started it.
The Apprentice Hike is the community arm of Sprout, the UK platform helping young people find skilled work without university debt. Apprenticeships put people in real jobs and earning at 18, which is the win. The downside nobody talks about: working full-time at 18, 19, 20 quietly cuts you off from the easy social life uni gives everyone else.
Most of your old mates are still students. Your colleagues are 30, 40, with kids and mortgages and Friday-night plans that don't include you. That's the gap.
Apprentices shouldn't be the ones missing out on a social life. This is the day off you'll actually remember.
So we built the thing we wished existed. Outdoors, low-stakes, no awkward "and what do you do?" energy. You happen to leave with new contacts because you spent a Saturday out walking with them, not because anyone wore a lanyard.
Meet Zakariya.
Zakariya is a degree apprentice at Jaguar Land Rover. This August, he's trekking to Everest Base Camp, and he's been training for months. Running distances he never thought he could. Pushing himself well past where his comfort zone usually stops.
Pick something that scares you a bit, train for it, and do it with good people around you. That's the whole idea. - Zakariya
That mindset is the hike in one person. Every trip is built the same way: a route that stretches you a little, a group that carries you along, and a day you'll still be talking about at work on Monday.
Start where you are.
You don't need to have hiked before. You don't need the right gear (we send a kit list when you book). You don't need to know anyone. You just need to turn up.
Come as you are. See where the trail takes you.