Year 11 aiming for a Level 3 IT/Hardware Apprenticeship – do homelabs/linux experience actually matter to employers?
Im 16, doing my gcses and hoping to get an IT/Hardware apprenticeship instead of going to college. My teachers keep telling me apprenticeships are really competitive and hard to get, and its just making me pretty nervous.
Over the past couple of years ive really got into homelabs and building servers aswell as my own pc which i spent ages saving up for. I have xubuntu running on a system with some parts i scavenged for on ebay and facebook marketplace running jellyfin game servers and my family uses it as a nas. I also fix and help family members with their computers or upgrading and helping pick out new parts for them.
To anyone who hires IT apprentices or is doing one right now, does having home projects like this or experience with linux actually help you stand out to employers, or do most of the applicants do this sort of stuff?