Like most teens coming from school/college, I was clueless as to what I wanted to to pursue a career in. I knew the college environment wasn’t going to work for me and I wasn’t going to pretend I wanted to go to uni either, so I finished up at college, left with my diploma and began looking into job opportunities and apprenticeships.
I had never even had a job interview before and I was clueless to the way it all worked. I applied for one apprenticeship in inbound marketing which resulting in me getting the job but due to certain circumstances, I wasn’t able to begin there. However, fortunately that company referred me to The E-Commerce Workroom and I went for another interview and passed (hooray).
On a day to day basis, I interact and manage clients social media accounts, create email campaigns, write/create content, use CMS systems such as Magento and WordPress to add content to client sites, meet with clients and analyse their social media and so much more.
Finally, I was becoming part of something! I had started working with a REAL company practicing a REAL job role, what more could I ask for in terms of experience? Not only that but didn’t even have to think about uni, all my worries seemed over. When I first began with the apprenticeship, I was completely clueless on the business’ niche however over these past 10 months, I have become an asset to the company – by taking on new responsibilities and having my work valued by the company and its clients. It has also given me had the chance to learn, and meet 1 to 1 to develop my skills/knowledge in the industry, and the work counts towards some of my qualification.
Based on my experience, here are four reasons why you should consider hiring an apprentice;
- Career Kick-start
Hiring an apprentice who has just left school or college can be the most beneficial kick-start to their journey in life. There are so many different reasons why I became an apprentice and one of them was to begin my career and give me the best chance in life. Even if I all else failed after my apprenticeship placement, I knew that I would be able to take the skills learnt from my apprenticeship and apply them else-where in other job opportunities.
- Make The Employees You Need
Hiring someone for freelance or part time can sometimes be a waste of time if you are looking for long-term. You will have to re-teach each new person the way you do things so in this case with an apprentice you can mould them into the way you like things done. Working in an apprenticeship for a company, you begin to understand their culture more and more every day.
- Learn New Skills/Knowledge
The saying goes “you learn something new everyday” and that doesn’t just go for an apprentice, you as an employer will learn new skills and more of an understanding from your apprentice.
- Company Asset
Many of the companies considering hiring an apprentice are smaller businesses who need the staff and it’s a low-cost way to do it. In many cases, that apprentice can then free up your time to develop the business, leaving the apprentice as a central part of the running of the business whilst not costing your business much to do so.
Having an apprenticeship has been one of the most enjoyable and beneficial opportunities I have been given. No matter what happens after my apprenticeship, I will continue to grow my knowledge and experience gained in the apprenticeship to build my career from the start this has given me.
Jodie Lawlor
Apprentice at The E-Commerce Workroom