How to lateral/network

Hi all, very sorry for the long post! It does require some background so here goes..

I joined my small/mid level IB in their London Branch as an apprentice (UK school leaver programme where apprentices spend 80% of their time on the job and 20% of the time studying for a qualification. My qualification is a BA in Business and Management, so the programme is 3 ish years) in Sep 2020, so I have just started my second year.

Unfortunately I very recently found out my company pays its apprentices less once they finish their programme and roll onto a grad scheme, when compared to grads that join straight from uni (which is just a joke), and as such I am looking to leave the company ASAP (speaking to an apprentice who just started her final year, she's raised this with HR + Management for a long time and nothing has been done to improve this).

Where joining straight out of school, I am comfortable speaking to those within the bank across all departments and hierarchies, but am not sure how to go about networking externally, as it is simply not something I have had to do before - apprenticeship applications required none of it - and where I'm working, I can't just attend another bank's insight days and that kind of thing. I would be looking to ask other banks who run apprenticeship schemes (either direct teams or HR/recruiters) whether they would accept an apprentice to finish their programme at their bank (i.e. just get my degree, CFA Level 1 negotiations can come thereafter haha) as I would rather not start from scratch. Does anyone please have any advice how to go about this? Anything would be much appreciated!

For reference, my current role is a DCM Loans/Debt 'Advisory' type role. I have experience working on various types of pitches (financing proposals, market updates etc etc) with more limited modelling experience (mostly just using same/similar numbers from broker reports. No experience building merger models, or specific scenarios other than broker forecasts, but have shadowed these processes and would be looking to ease into doing this over the coming year) I would be looking for a similar role but open to anything - over the next year I am looking to perhaps do a few months either in DCM Bonds or ECM or even any sort of S&T role (which isn't reallly my thing but any experience is good experience lol). The bank is rather good at letting apprentices rotate.

Thank you all!

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