Surge in Social Media Apprenticeships

There seems to have been a real surge in Social Media Apprenticeships recently, not just young school leavers wanting to follow this career path but also from employers understanding the value of social media to their business.

The first reason for the growth is down to businesses realising that social media is something that has to be taken seriously. They can no longer play lip service and consider that a few tweets here and a couple of posts there is going to do it while their competitors round up new followers and likes. There is more to social media than this. Do businesses understand brand ambassadors and social media influencers? Do they understand how to drive traffic to their websites? What is SEO? What is SMO? What is PPC? Should they be using infographics? What is the best social media management tool? What should go into a blog? How they create a YouTube channel?

Employers really need to ensure that their social media is being managed and developed. How many businesses can honestly say that they have a social media marketing plan in place or for that matter a social media policy?

By employing an apprentice to run their social media businesses are learning that they can get someone who actually understands social media but can also grow with the business and be a key part of marketing activities.

The growth in social media apprenticeships is also down to young people leaving school and discovering that there is a career path in social media and digital marketing. School career advisors are also discovering new career paths available to their leavers. Yes, they can still advise on the more traditional career paths but as our economy morphs they are also becoming aware of non traditional paths and social media is one example.

So what can businesses expect from a social media apprentice? Well, the first thing as we have already mentioned is that they understand it. More often than not a young school leaver will be fully conversant with Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat etc. Knowing these platforms is something of a skill and often requires confidence in how to use them. The Advanced Level Apprenticeship in Social Media for Business then builds on this knowledge and the apprentice will cover a number of units that will develop skills and knowledge on growing an online presence and brand, how to develop and manage content management systems and how to use Twitter and Facebook advertising.

If businesses would like more information on the benefits of employing a social media apprentice then please contact us. Likewise, if you are an apprentice candidate and would like to explore the social media apprentice vacancies that we currently have then please get in touch.

 The Qualification

Social Media Apprentices study the City & Guilds Level 3 Social Media for Business qualification.

This is delivered through a mixture of online learning, live webinar tutorials and support and guidance from their course mentor. Apprentices do not need to attend college or take time out from the workplace. Apprentices learn on the job and use the online learning materials. Employers do need to make time available for online tutorials but these can be accessed from any PC or laptop in the workplace.