I am one of our digital marketing apprentices here at Work PR, and I am working through my one-and-a-half-year apprenticeship which I started on the first of May. During my first month, my knowledge of web design and all digital marketing has come on leaps and bounds, both from my excellent colleagues here at Work PR, and from my studies with the college.
I have one day of college a week which I complete at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic closing the college to in-person classes. The rest of the week I spend in the office, getting in at 8 am and leaving at 4 pm. During my time in the office, I spend my time learning by assisting our resident web designer by taking on some of his tasks so that I will be able to do them unaided in the future. I also assist my other colleagues in tasks ranging from research to checking the SEO quality of others work.
Another job I have is using a text to speech software that we have to translate things from written text into an audiobook style experience, which allows commuting employees to be able to keep up to date with their company, even if they must drive into work. The great thing about this is that we can do it for both copy that you have written in-house and copy that we have written for you.
In the rare occasion that my workload is low, I will always find a topic I can research that either helps me improve a skill I already possess, or a new skill that develops and improves me as a digital marketer. One of these was some basic game design on a coding platform called scratch, that I can use to add little games to clients’ websites on request that would boost the interactivity and reduce the bounce rate, (how quickly a user leaves a website after clicking on it) giving it a better SEO rating.
There are a few issues that come from desk work in front of a computer for 8 hours a day, with stiff legs and backs and eye strain. To combat this, I always make sure that every hour, I spend at least 5 minutes looking around, or out the window to stop my eyes straining. I also wear blue light glasses to combat the damage that can be caused to my eyes by the blue light that is emitted by screens. To combat the stiff back and legs I make sure that I am sitting upright and straight in my chair and then try to walk around the office a bit once an hour minimum just to keep the blood pumping to my legs.
Going into an apprenticeship, I had my worries that I would be stuck making coffee/ tea for everyone, or doing all the shredding and filing, or doing basic menial work, but I have landed a role where I am constantly supported in doing all the tasks that help develop me as a digital marketer and as a person and been wholly accepted and taken into the Work PR family with open arms.
