Celebrating National Apprenticeship Week

From 14-18 March, England will be celebrating National Apprenticeship week 2016, a campaign organised by the National Apprenticeship Service to promote the apprenticeship opportunities available to young people.
Voice runs a successful apprenticeship programme of its own which has seen staff member Jade Bolton go from working in retail to becoming a qualified Account Executive with an exciting career in PR and Marketing ahead of her. Jade says: “My apprenticeship gave me the chance to learn the knowledge that I needed to become an Account Executive while learning skills and experience on the job. By doing an apprenticeship it gave me a great way to gain knowledge on how to work in an office environment, attend client meetings and learn from others who have years of experience in PR. I am really grateful to the team for letting me grow further within Voice and continue to grow my knowledge.”
Voice also currently has two apprentices on the team, Megan House and Ben Pentney who are studying Social Media and Digital Marketing at a local college. We caught up with Megan and Ben to hear their thoughts on apprenticeships.
Megan commented: “Although I loved school going onto sixth form never appealed to me, likewise with university, which is why I decided to have a look around for apprenticeship opportunities available to me. I knew that apprenticeship courses were available for careers such as hairdressing, plumbing and carpentry however had no idea that I could gain a qualification in marketing. When I found out that Voice ran an apprenticeship programme I was delighted, and even more pleased when I found out how close it was to home.
Since starting my apprenticeship with Voice I have learnt more than I ever could have imagined, I am progressing within my role and my college course as well as developing personally too. I think that over the past couple of years apprenticeships have become very popular and successful and you can now find a suitable course for almost any career and I’d recommend looking into this before committing yourself to university and the fees that come alongside this.”
Ben says: “I have taken part in an apprenticeship before, this meant that I was comfortable and familiar with how it is run. Being an apprentice at Voice has given me a fantastic insight to PR and what it’s like to work in the industry, I learn something new and build on new skills.
For me I feel that being an apprentice rather than going to university and then going into a fulltime job works better for me. Not only am I earning whilst learning, having that all important experience before progressing in the business is vital.
As an employer, Voice has a fantastic structure to the programme, they ensure that there are always new possibilities and paths for me to explore, as well as build on those I am already familiar with. Having a great team around me means that I’m always able to ask questions if I’m not 100% sure on what I’ve been asked to do, as well as have any additional support I may require.
I really am part of the team and there is the opportunity to grow within the company should I achieve all the targets I’m set, which is great to know I have somewhere to aim for.”