What skills Every Apprentice Needs in order to be Successful

No matter what industry you want to become an apprentice in, there are some skills all apprentices need to have to be successful. Perhaps the most important one is having the willingness to learn. As a Marketing Apprentice myself I have learnt so much in the 6 months that I have been at Skills for Growth – SME Support and developed many skills necessary for performing my role effectively, and if I didn’t have the willingness to learn I certainly wouldn’t have made it this far. The point of an apprenticeship is to learn and work at the same time which is why having the willingness to learn is essential for any prospective apprentices.

You also need to be motivated and have passion for the field you wish to enter as this is what employers will look for when interviewing candidates, especially if you have no prior experience in the field. Having self-confidence and being effective at communicating are also essential skills as you will be working for a real company doing real work, which will require effective communication with colleagues to plan and execute projects and a level of self-confidence is needed to do this.

Skills for Marketing

Amongst the many skills needed to be a marketing apprentice, you’ll definitely need to be organised as you’ll have to constantly be on top of things when you have social schedules to create, social posts to design, articles to write, newsletters to create and distribute. Being organised is essential to help you meet deadlines and often when you are juggling multiple tasks it is easy to get engrossed in one activity and drop the ball on another.

Creativity also plays an important part in marketing as you’ll need this skill for most of the work you will do. For example, designing social posts requires you to think about how each post will be laid out, what content it will feature and how to vary the designs whilst keeping them within the brand design language.

The ability to work well in a team is also important ensuring the marketing aligns with the businesses’ overall goals. In order to ensure this consistency, having meetings and collaborating with colleagues in and outside of your team is necessary to communicate with each other and delegate tasks amongst yourselves.

Skills Learned on the Job

As an apprentice, you’ll learn many of the skills needed to perform your role whilst on the job. One of the first skills I learned on the job at Skills for Growth – SME Support was how to use Canva, a graphic design tool to create social posts. With only a few hours of graphic design experience using Photoshop, I quickly had to learn how to use Canva, but with the training from my manager and the user-friendly design of Canva, I soon became comfortable with the tool, using it to create professional social posts and other content when needed.

Adaptability is a big part of doing an apprenticeship and you’ll find that this is a skill you will greatly develop. You will most likely be asked to do a wide variety of tasks over the course of your apprenticeship that covers many areas, to give you a better understanding of those areas, and to find what your strengths and weaknesses are. Other skills you will likely learn and develop include teamwork, communication, problem-solving, organisation and many more, providing you with all the essential skills you need to be successful, no matter what your job is or where you work.

Before you decide to do an Apprenticeship…

A crucial part of an apprenticeship is the off the job training and studying you do to earn the qualification at the end of it. This makes up 20% of your apprenticeship, usually in the form of one day a week being your designated “study” day where you focus solely on studying for your apprenticeship. A big part of this off the job time will be spent creating case studies that show the skills and knowledge you have applied in your work to show the assessor you are worthy of the qualification. These case studies can take a while to create and perfect and balancing this with your work duties can be tricky, especially if your workload is already stacked up. As long as you are prepared to work hard you will be fine and finish your apprenticeship with a shiny new qualification.

So, if you’re thinking about doing an apprenticeship, expect to work hard but reap the benefits.

If you are interested in doing an apprenticeship or you would like more information about how apprenticeships can benefit your business, be sure to give us a call on 0161 237 4444 to speak to our apprenticeship specialist who will have no problem answering all your burning questions.