One Year in: Marketing Apprentice’s Journey at Dir...

Since National Apprenticeship Week 2023, my responsibilities at work have expanded a lot! I still take care of Direct Air’s CRM and enquiries processes, which is a daily task that I now know like the back of my hand. Perfecting processes in this area has made me feel much more confident with speaking to customers, and classroom work at college such as the Communication in a Business Environment unit has also assisted me with this.

Alongside this, my new responsibilities consist of updating documentation, creating and scheduling social media posts, producing analytical reports and contacting suppliers for updates. As well as sales support such as helping to handle lead generation.

I’ve been continuously developing my training at work as well as at college by doing a range of training courses, these include:

• BCAS Working Safely With Compressed Air course
• BCAS Compressed Air System Technology course
• Excel training
• Google Adverts training
• Google Analytics for Beginners course
• Google Analytics Certification course
• Chamber Training Digital Marketing course

On top of this, I have more coming up, including a Google Analytics to get to grips with the new GA4 platform.

I have now completed 80% of the college course work required to complete my apprenticeship and being so close to the finish line makes me more motivated than ever to work hard and achieve the distinction grade that I’m aiming for. One of the key units that I’m happy to have finished already is my Marketing and Sales section because this relates so directly to my job role at work.

Due to being so close to completing my apprenticeship, I am now finalising the remaining units outstanding. Some of these include Personal and Professional Development, ICT for Business and Communication in a Business Environment.

Once this is done I will be able to move into the EPA gateway, which allows me to book in for my end point assessment and complete my preparation for the final assessment.

This is something I’m both excited and nervous about as I’m eager to complete the apprenticeship but there is also a lot riding on the EPA as it is the final step to determining my grade for all of the work I have put in over the past year.

Entering the working world through an apprenticeship really makes me feel one step ahead, because once I am qualified in a couple of months I will already know Direct Air so well and the company’s processes. For this reason I think the apprenticeship has set me up really well for my career, especially as the course itself offered units which directly relate to my job role which I found very beneficial.

Although the course had focused unit which specifically reflect the tasks I take on at work in my role, I think even the general business knowledge that the apprenticeship course has provided me with are skills that I’ll now put in practice for life.