We hear this a lot since unfortunately the apprenticeship brand is tainted – “These qualifications are useless pieces of paper with no relevance to my business”. 

This is because the old form of apprenticeships (pre-2017) could be delivered with little regard to the apprentice’s role and the employer’s need.

The new apprenticeships are different. Panels of representatives from REAL businesses mapped out what the standard should look like. They’ve kept it really simple so you could see what’s involved on a couple of sides of A4. The reason for a light-touch standard is that each apprenticeship should be bespoke to the employer, rather than highly prescribed by the government. 

Apprentices get a nationally recognised qualification and employers get the skills their business requires. 

Your Academy Tutor will meet with the manager and the apprentice to agree on what they will be doing for the business before the programme starts and then every month. The better the communication between the Tutor and the manager, the better the results. 

The manager is also invited and encouraged to take part, along with their apprentice, in our monthly expert webinars delivered by top marketing consultants. It will be their chance to put marketing questions to an expert, solve business conundrums and feel connected to the programme.

Throughout the programme, we will review our activities to ensure you feel you are getting value from the apprentice and they are putting their learning to good use. We will find out how things are going with your business, your needs and your future plans and will shape the learning to meet these needs.

The coursework is very practical and pragmatic. The apprentice must show they put their learning into practise.

In most small businesses, employees are required to pick up tasks outside their core role. It’s no different for your apprentice. As long as 51% of their time is on Digital Marketing they can support other areas of your business. In fact we usually encourage this because it builds a better understanding of the business, which results in better digital marketing. 

As a flavour for the types of marketing activities they might do, here are some examples: 

1. Review the marketing messages your business currently uses at different stages of the customer journey. Identify whether each one has the right appeal and recommend how you might improve them. 
2. Pick one of your top three marketing issues and build a mini digital marketing plan and/or campaign to address it, taking into account; objectives, audience, messaging, content, timing, budget, measures of success and platforms. 
3. Think of a no-commitment trial to put in place that will give your customers a taste of what you do and how you deliver it without spending any money. Discuss with your manager what you need to do to put it in place.