Isla Lightfoot – Chief Marketing Officer @ MWS Technology (Aptem) shares her experience with Just IT’s Digital Marketing Apprenticeships.
What was the reason that led to you using an apprenticeship programme?
Our team is made up of relatively experienced Marketing Managers, one of who came through the apprenticeship route. We had an opportunity for someone to join our team at entry level and work across the full marketing mix. We felt this would be an excellent opportunity for an apprentice to learn the trade combining work-based experience with relevant skills training.
Why did you choose an apprenticeship over other solutions?
We have a culture of employing apprenticeships who stay with us post-completion and continue to work their way up the career ladder. We are very aware of the benefits of apprenticeship training. We knew we could support the apprenticeship training with relevant work experience, and our team, made up of previous apprentices and a CMO who always combined academic study with work, were ideally suited to support a marketing apprentice.
How well did our team explain the programme and its delivery?
Just IT has been brilliant and we couldn’t recommend them highly enough. From initially explaining the process, recruitment and the detail of the programme, to finding us a highly suitable candidate and ensuring they work closely with us to deliver an exceptional skills programme that compliments the work-experience we can offer. Our Apprentice is a highly motivated candidate who enjoys the programme Just IT delivers and is an asset to our team.
Can you outline three key aspects to how you successfully embedded the apprenticeship programme?
- We ensured we understood the curriculum and that we could support it with relevant work experience at key times.
- We met regularly with Just IT’s Business coach, and our apprentice to ensure everyone was happy, time was correctly allocated for our apprentice to study (1 day a week), and deadlines were being met.
- We supplemented the curriculum with additional training sessions on key aspects such as SOSTAC, RACE and Analytics, that we had deep knowledge of within our team.
How did we support you with delivery of our Apprenticeships?
Just IT managed the recruitment of our apprentice and delivers the skills programme to enable him to complete a Level 3 apprenticeship in Digital Marketing. Both the Account Management team and the Coach keep in regular contact. We are fully versed in our apprentice’s progress and upcoming modules.
What, for you, are the key benefits of apprenticeships?
- Apprenticeships enable you to take an entry level candidate and quickly get them up to speed through this perfect combination of work-experience and skills development. Generally these things are done separately – people study and then start work, that’s where a gap appears and it can take a longer period of time for someone to start being effective and delivering organisational value.
- Apprenticeships provide you with a more diverse pool of candidates. If you hire from Russell Group Unis your pool of talent is generally homogeneous. A diverse workforce delivers a more innovative approach, bringing together new ideas and approaches.
Would you recommend our apprenticeships, and why?
Yes definitely. They are well organised, well delivered, contain relevant and applicable skills, and the team at Just IT is a delight to work with.
If your organisation is looking to hire an apprentice across IT & Digital, or to upskill your existing staff, please get in touch.