It’s one of the first of its kind offered by a UK FE College and there’s been a remarkably high level of applicants for the course.
Around 20 young people are studying at the Lansdowne campus in Bournemouth, and most have signed up for apprenticeships with local companies.
They will be learning about marketing using social media to promote their companies to an online audience.
Sian Wright, 18, from Poole has recently started work with chartered accountants Princecroft Willis,
Sian said: “This apprenticeship will teach me valuable marketing strategies which can be applied to social media such as Facebook and Twitter. It’s a welcome opportunity with the added bonus of a City and Guilds qualification on completion.”
Liam Kelly, 19, from Christchurch, who was recently taken on by TDB Supply Solutions, Ferndown, said he is keen to develop his knowledge of on-line marketing techniques, particularly the best way to use social media.
A leading Bournemouth-based web design company Redweb has signed up seven of its young trainees to learn from the course.
Andrew Henning, CEO of Redweb, said: “For a number of years we’ve been impacted by the UK digital talent gap.
“The demand for skills is ever increasing and the emergence of this apprenticeship scheme is a brilliant opportunity to get talented young people into the agency, via a certified and recognised route.
“Being an apprentice has a number of benefits over standard recruits. For example they get time to learn and we’re much more flexible in them exploring individual disciplines and finding the role that suits them best. They get a formal qualification and experience of the vibrant life within a busy agency.
“Redweb has seven apprentices from the scheme across content, search, quality assurance, support, planning, account management and marketing. We’re confident that they’ll all become valuable employees of the agency come July 2015.”
Around 12 other companies are also using the Bournemouth & Poole College to train their apprentices.
The apprentices will spend one day a week learning about digital marketing techniques and how to get the most out of social media for their employers.
Lead course tutor for the course, Jason Eastwood said, “It is exciting to be helping to create something new with this apprenticeship. It combines the traditional ideas of an apprenticeship with the limitless power of on-line technology.’
“The companies supporting this scheme will benefit from the talent of these young people as we take them forward with the programme.”
