Recently, we spoke again with Jess to catch up and see how she’s been progressing within her digital marketing apprenticeship! We asked her a few further questions to discuss recent achievements, the training and support she’s received and much, much more. Find out more about Jess’ experience so far at Athona below.
What aspects of marketing do you feel that you have improved in the most over the past 10 months?
Over the past 10 months, I’ve learnt so many new aspects of marketing, from email campaigns, to designing social posts and videos, writing blogs, and so much more. However, I feel that I have improved the most in design. Before joining Athona, I had minimal training and experience with photo editing software, so when I was introduced to InDesign and Illustrator, I instantly found a passion for editing and designing and realised there was so much more I had to learn! Through training sessions with my team, and some independent learning, I quickly discovered design work is now one of my favourite tasks that I do on a day-to-day basis. Due to this training, I now feel confident enough in design work to come up with my own ideas and share them with my team.
In order to progress in your role, what additional training and support did you receive?
Since joining Athona in February, I have received in house training from my team on our internal software such as InDesign, Illustrator, Virtuoso, Dotdigital, Google Analytics and much more. As well as this, I’ve also received external training sessions to improve my knowledge even further. From 18th-19th July, I attended a two day Premiere Pro Intermediate Training workshop at Media Training HQ in London. During this course, I learnt new shortcuts to reduce time when creating a video at work. I’ve found this to be a very efficient learning tool as it has drastically reduced my video editing time. Furthermore, I learnt how the different video editing tools function, such as the ripple and rolling tool, editing interview clips and text animation. I left the course with a certificate of completion and a wealth of knowledge that I now apply to my everyday work to improve the quality of each video.
What do you enjoy most about working at Athona?
I most enjoy the positive and friendly culture that Athona has created for employees. Everybody is extremely welcoming and supportive towards one another, which therefore allows you to feel confident approaching anybody. As well as this, I thoroughly enjoy working within my team in the marketing department. This is because they have created such an upbeat and fun environment that instantly made me feel at ease and comfortable with asking any questions.
What recent achievements have you had both within your apprenticeship and day-to-day work since we last spoke to you?
Within the past 10 months, I have received the award of Support Person of the month for August and Most Promising Newcomer at our Athona Annual Awards celebration in December. I was thrilled with both awards and since receiving them, they have given me a huge sense of accomplishment and confidence in my work moving forward.
Apprenticeship achievements
From February to March, I focused all of my apprenticeship study time each day on Google Analytics Academy. I revised the beginners and advanced courses which both counted as one of my three exams in my apprenticeship. On 11th, March I sat my final exam for the beginner course, which I was very pleased to have passed on my first attempt. After this, I sat the advanced course exam on 22nd, March which I was thrilled to once again have passed first try.
After sitting my Google Analytics exams, I primarily studied the principles of offline and online marketing from April to June. In preparation, I attended workshops every fortnight, as well as additional study sessions with my assessor. We covered a variety of topics that I found very interesting as a lot of my course intertwined with my day-to-day tasks that I was completing at work. On 14th, June I sat this exam for the first time and passed with flying colours!
Following on from this, my final exam topic was on the principles of coding. I found this topic the most challenging as I had previously had no experience with any coding software or terminology. Due to this, I attended extra support workshops to go over modules within this course that I found particularly difficult. I remained dedicated and determined to pass this exam and through the revision sessions and my own independent learning, I was excited to receive the news that I had passed this exam on my first try on 23rd, November.
Get in touch!
Are you a school or college graduate looking to delve into the digital marketing world? We’re currently recruiting for a digital marketing assistant apprentice, like Jess, to have the opportunity to gain a qualification whilst working a full-time position. If this sounds like the job for you, apply today on our website!
E: marketing@athona.com
T: 01277 217 777
