3 Things I Learnt As An Apprentice

Hi. I’m Jacob, and if you haven’t seen my name pop up in your inbox or LinkedIn feed before, I’m a Social Media Executive here at Ponderosa. Before this, I was an apprentice, fresh out of school. I finished my apprenticeship (with a distinction!) just after December, but that doesn’t mean the learning has stopped.

As it’s #NationalApprenticeshipWeek, I’m going to tell you about 3 key things I learnt in my apprenticeship, some of which are skills I use everyday as a Social Media Exec.

Advertising funnels

The principles of a social media marketing funnel aren’t exactly commonly taught in the school classroom, but you definitely learn about them in a digital marketing apprenticeship. I’ve had practical experience and explanations on how these work from Ponderosa, but they were also covered in my level 3 digital marketing syllabus as part of the online and offline marketing principles section.

Creating ad funnels is a continuous learning process, and something I’m trying to incorporate to whatever campaigns I can.

Blog writing

This is a weird one – I’ve always been able to write cohesively, but not with much purpose. I’d written school papers, and some insight articles prior to starting at Ponderosa, but never anything linked to a wider brand or message. Writing blog content for brands forced me to use a kind of consideration around brand tone and messaging I hadn’t used before, and one that is only built up from experience.

I’ve mainly written around food brands and events, but also insight articles internally for the agency.

Presenting

Almost everyone had a time in school when they had to stand up in class and show off their work, me included, but I had never created a full deck and presented it to a client before my apprenticeship at Ponderosa.

Some say jumping in the deep end is the best way to learn, and I’d say that’s pretty close to the truth. In the first month of my apprenticeship I created and presented a deck on social strategy for a potential client, having never created a proposal before. It was well received and we even won the client.

Fancy joining us as an apprentice? Drop us a line.