V Formation has always been a firm believer in nurturing young talent, and actively supports and provides opportunities for budding marketers to learn and develop their skills within marketing and PR. As it’s National Apprenticeship Week, we discuss the value that apprenticeships have added to our business and hear from our recent apprentices.

Apprenticeships, essentially, offer employees the chance to gain additional qualifications and learn new skills during the course of employment. It is a fantastic opportunity for career development and, for employers, a great way, both practically and financially, to upskill your workforce and/or recruit new talent.

In marketing and PR the landscape evolves quickly and it is important that we keep up with the pace of change. The Baltic Digital Marketing Apprenticeships scheme, in particular, has provided us with an ideal platform to develop our own junior marketers.

Digital marketing apprenticeships from Baltic

Baltic offers a completely digital apprenticeship training platform, which has been ideal in the current circumstances, and aims to provide apprentices with the skills required to define, design, build and implement a range of marketing campaigns across a variety of online and offline platforms.

Delivered via an online ‘SMART classroom’, the one-year course offers a professional development programme for junior marketers and combines learning with real world application. Apprentices come together from all over the country and work together in the smart learning environment. This has provided a valuable opportunity for our apprentices to learn alongside others at a time when classroom-style learning in the traditional sense has not been possible.

Our apprentices

Amy Cooper, senior marketing executive, and Beckie Chaddock, marketing and PR executive at V Formation, recently completed their apprenticeships with Baltic. Both have become integral members of the V Formation team since joining us through a graduate internship, which gave them a real flavour of working in a busy agency environment. We invested further in their training and development through the apprenticeship scheme as we recognised that their expanding knowledge and skill sets is of real value to the business.

Amy says:

“I am always looking for ways in which I can expand on my knowledge in digital marketing, so when I was approached with the opportunity to complete a level 4 digital marketing apprenticeship, I was eager to jump at the chance.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning with Baltic, with highlights including looking in depth at mobile optimisation and the ways in which social media can impact SEO.

The use of the SMART classroom meant that the course was not interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, and it was an excellent opportunity to connect with new people across the country in these isolating times.”

Beckie adds:

“Though I was a little apprehensive about it initially, using the SMART Classroom platform was a unique and genuinely enjoyable experience – it is a really innovative approach to teaching unlike anything I’ve experienced before. I was surprised by the sense of community I felt with my fellow apprentices taking part in the course, who joined the online classroom from a variety of locations across the country, as well as with the technical trainers who delivered each programme.

“I feel really grateful to have been offered such valuable learning opportunity and feel I have come away from the apprenticeship course with a deepened understanding of marketing campaigns, communication, service delivery, budget management, evaluation & analysis, and marketing systems & processes.”

Adding value

Having successfully completed their apprenticeships, Amy and Beckie have gained a recognised qualification to add to their portfolio and V Formation (and our clients) now benefit from the additional skills that they acquired.

V Formation director Sue Carr explains:

“We are committed to investing in the future and supporting the ongoing development of the team at V Formation. We were delighted to support Amy and Beckie with their involvement in the Digital Marketing apprenticeship scheme at Baltic. It was a time commitment for both the business and Amy and Beckie, but they were benefitting from developing their skills which in turn has helped us expand our services and what we can offer to our clients. Marketing is evolving at a pace with the increasing trends in digital tactics and platforms, keeping at the forefront of this is essential for us as a business and for our clients.”