L-R: Claire MacDonald, Olivia Austin and Esme Wade
February 7-13 marks the 15th National Apprenticeships Week. We speak to apprentices from Derbyshire businesses who are loving the practical approach to learning on the job – and their employers who relish the opportunity to hone the next generation’s fresh young talent.
While the pandemic is continuing to have an economic hangover for many businesses, statistics show that others – particularly start-ups – are booming.
With growth comes challenges, including finding and recruiting the staff these organisations need to undertake all their new work.
Faced with this, an increasing number of companies are turning to apprenticeships, including award-winning Derbyshire creative firm MacMartin.
Set up by sisters Claire Macdonald and Anna Hutton in 2017, the Church Broughton-based business is a full-service marketing agency which has enjoyed a period of growth during the pandemic, doubling its office space in 2022.
MacMartin has shown a real commitment to training up young employees through taking them on as apprentices. Its head of design, Maisie Gilman, started out as an apprentice when she was just 18, and the company has also now taken on two new apprentice recruits; digital marketing executive Esme Wade, and website designer Olivia Austin. Esme and Olivia are undertaking Level Three apprenticeships through EMA Training in Siddals Road, Derby, putting their learning immediately to use in MacMartin’s stylish offices.
For Esme, who is studying digital marketing, signing up for an apprenticeship with MacMartin was the ideal pathway to explore her creativity after her drama degree.
“Having an apprenticeship means that I can gain experience in all areas of marketing, as well as coming out with a qualification,” she says. “It’s also very creative, which I enjoy.”
Day-to-day, Esme organises social media for clients, including email marketing and writing blogs. As she explains: “I touch on a little bit of everything for all our clients. Doing an apprenticeship gives you confidence because you’re learning with peers while at training, but you also have the experience of working at MacMartin where everyone is an expert in their field, so you get the best of both worlds.”
An apprenticeship can also be a useful alternative pathway to university, empowering those who prefer hands-on learning to studying full time in a classroom. Maisie says while she was initially nervous about choosing an apprenticeship path rather than follow friends to university, she now knows it was the perfect choice for her.
She says: “At the time, probably two months before I started my apprenticeship, I had serious fear of missing out at everyone else going to university. But now, that worry has completely gone and I’m so glad I did what I did. It’s nice to be a bit further ahead in my career now too.”
So much for the benefits of apprenticeships for employees, but what about for businesses?
MacMartin marketing Director Anna Hutton says in practical industries like hers, as well as areas such as engineering, apprenticeships are an extremely valuable way to nurture new talent, as well as benefiting from fresh knowledge in a constantly changing industry. Top marketing experts, for example, must stay abreast of changes to social platforms which occur literally on a daily basis.
Anna says: “For us, it is about getting people entering an industry when they’re really keen to learn and also making sure that those skills are always new. I think it’s really important because our industry is so fast-paced that we always have people that are learning at some point, and we found apprenticeships in our industry are the most successful way to do that.
“It’s massively valuable to us. Apprenticeships provide our employees – and MacMartin – with meaningful skills. I’m experienced in marketing but I’m reliant on everyone else in the company to teach us the latest way of doing things. Tech is like fashion – continually changing. What’s trendy? What’s not? What looks nice on a website is forever changing.”
The number of people starting apprenticeships in England has bounced back to pre-pandemic levels with 130,200 apprentices beginning the scheme between August and October 2021 compared with 125,800 in 2019.
Here in the East Midlands, numbers of apprentices have increased from 11,500 in 2019 to 11,900 in 2021 with the biggest industries benefitting from fresh talent being engineering.
Another business which is reaping the rewards of having an apprentice in the team is Duffield Road-based Vibrant Accountancy.
They have recently taken on their first apprentice – 24-year-old Katie Walton – who is studying for her professional diploma with EMA Training.
Katie, from Burton, spends one day a week with EMA who, as well as supporting Macmartin’s Esme and Olivia with their apprenticeships, help Katie learn all core aspects of accountancy, including business awareness, ethical standards, regulations and compliance and systems and processes.
She said: “I am absolutely delighted to have joined Vibrant Accountancy and my first few weeks in the job have flown by.
“I have worked for various organisations previously, helping ensure that their internal finances run smoothly and, more recently, I worked for an IT company.
“I enjoy the hands-on experience that I get at Vibrant. The variation is good, too, and I’m really enjoying work.
“Vibrant have a lot of experienced staff and I know that, if I need extra support with one of the modules I’m learning, I can turn to the team for help.”
Vibrant co-founder Bev Wakefield says that having fresh, young talent join the business is a breath of fresh air.
“We are a fast-growing business and Katie joins us at an exciting time of growth,” said Bev, who set up Vibrant in 2019 with business partner Ian Ball.
“Our values and ethos are now firmly embedded into the company – we want to be one step ahead of our clients and to empower them, supplementing core services with mentoring, coaching and general business support as part of a holistic approach.
“We want Vibrant Accountancy to help boost the local economy after what has been such a difficult couple of years, recruiting staff from the region who want to work with us and who we can train and help blossom.
“Katie fits the brief perfectly; it is good to be able to bring new talent into the company and we’re looking forward to watching her grow with Vibrant.”
Axess Systems, one of the country’s leading IT infrastructure providers which has its headquarters in Denby, have five apprentices on their books; Andrew Miles, Josh Young, Greg Cork, Aaron Banwait and Tom Jogela. They’re also recruiting more apprentices to cope with expected growth in 2022.
Josh, a former bar worker from Ashbourne, joined Axess Systems in 2020 as an internal account manager dealing with customers, quoting for jobs, working between account managers, data collecting and dealing with pre-sale queries.
After leaving school, he began studying A-Levels at Lady Manners School in Bakewell but, after deciding that wasn’t the right career path for him, he began looking for a suitable apprenticeship.
He said: “Finding the right apprenticeship wasn’t quite so straightforward,” he said, “it took a bit of time to find the right one for me but I’m very happy with my role at Axess Systems.
“I previously worked in a bar – 20/10 cocktail bar in Matlock – and one of my strengths was dealing with customers. That’s is one of my main tasks here at Axess will be; building relationships and dealing directly with customers.”
Heath Roberts, Axess Systems’ Operations Director, said: “The benefits of introducing apprentices to your business are endless; they bring so much enthusiasm to the workplace and can make a real impact.
“They arrive in your business with new ideas, and you can align an apprentice to the values of your business.”
The University of Derby are hosting an Apprenticeship Careers Event at their Kedleston Road site on February 9, where MacMartin will have a stand. Members of the public are invited to come along from 1pm-6pm.
