Today we’re sharing a post that we’ve been looking forward to for a long time as it marks the end of Jess’ apprenticeship and signals that she is a fully qualified digital marketer! We’re so proud to say that Jess not only qualified but also achieved a distinction in her course – she’s worked so hard and while the team have been around to support her, it’s her hard work and dedication that has enabled her to achieve such an impressive result. Today Jess shares a little about what was involved with completing her apprenticeship and whether it was as stressful as she envisaged!
Well, what a crazy 15 months it’s been but I’m so pleased to say that I’ve finally completed my apprenticeship! The last year or so has been full of learning, creating and a whole lot of grafting – for clients, for Purple and my apprenticeship – which has been key in helping me to achieve a Distinction! I’m so pleased 🥳
I’ve really enjoyed working on my apprenticeship and it’s been fantastic to work with the team at Apprentify and other apprentices too. For a 15 month apprenticeship, it’s highly unprecedented for such a huge portion of it to be carried out at home without the face-to-face catch ups with mentors from Apprentify, and without an entire office to lean on and gain support from but being in the digital industry it’s been simple – but one heck of an adjustment - for all of it to be done online and remotely!
Since my last update back in October I’ve been super busy completing all the stages of my end point assessment, as well as continuing client work and of course taking a well earnt break for Christmas!
What I’ve Been Up To
As I mentioned in my 12 month update, the final stage of my apprenticeship was to complete my end point assessment – a series of elements that combined get assessed by an examiner to determine my grade, including a selection of my work, an interview and a reference from my employer. It wasn’t as scary as it may sound!
November saw me pulling together final pieces of work and polishing off my portfolio. This huge piece of work was to essentially show off and showcase some of the projects I’ve worked on over the last year and flaunt all the new skills I’ve learnt since starting at Purple. It was so tricky to choose some key pieces to share as I’ve worked on such a range of projects since joining the team. I included some of my best email marketing campaigns and a detailed Google Analytics report of the Purple website, among other aspects of my role to show a range of my skills. It was a really fun experience to look back on all the things I have achieved as well as being super interesting to reflect on pieces of work and see how my skills have developed too.
Once that was submitted, the next step was to complete a 4-day synoptic project! This was a really interesting project for me, as I was able to choose from 5 general digital marketing briefs and then apply the task to Purple. I opted for a brand awareness brief that meant I was able to create a digital marketing plan for our company that now, since completing the assessment, we can put to use for Purple and utilise the four days spent researching, planning and creating!
The final stage of my end point assessment happened just last week - my interview with an external examiner. It might sound super daunting, but it was actually really relaxed as I was talking about two things that I’m really passionate about - digital marketing and working for Purple! And a week later, I found out I’d not only passed but had been awarded a distinction too, which was brilliant news and a great way to end my apprenticeship on a high. Although I hadn’t qualified by the end of 2020 as I was hoping to, I think I couldn’t have got much closer to my target if I’d tried!
What’s Next
My time so far with Purple has been amazing, and I’m so pleased to be continuing that journey! Now that my assessment it all out of the way, I can look at spending more time on client work and expanding our digital marketing offering. We’re always looking for new businesses that we can support through digital marketing and we’re keen to chat with anyone who might be interested. Please do get in touch if you want to find out more, we’d love to see how we can help you! In the coming months, I’ll be getting stuck into a wide range of client projects and looking at how we can broaden our offering. Emma and I are super excited to continue to work together and see how we can continue to expand our services.
Although my mandatory training and assessment are complete, my time with Apprentify is not year over! This month I’ll be completing my ‘Path to Mastery’ session to gain specialist knowledge expertise in social media advertising, including Facebook and Instagram. I’m really looking forward to this as it’ll be a really interesting topic that will also be extremely useful for Purple and some of our clients. Going forward I’d love to continue to expand my knowledge of digital marketing - having been in education for almost 20 years I don’t see why I should stop learning now!