One of the First Digital Apprentices

Exeter-based Leadstoyou have become one of the first companies in the region to link up with a new Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship scheme launched by Exeter College in September 2016.

Having gained good grades in her A-Levels, Alicia Harrington decided that an Apprenticeship would be the best option for her to get the digital experience she was looking for, which she didn’t feel would be available through a university course.

She was particularly keen to join rapidly expanding Leadstoyou as they were able to demonstrate high levels of in-house digital expertise. The free fruit, tea, coffee and even pizza may also have had a small influence!

Alicia was one of the first group of students from the new Apprenticeship scheme at the College.

“I wanted to do an apprenticeship following on from my A-levels as I knew I wanted to work in digital marketing and felt increasing my experience of working in a business environment would be beneficial,” said Alicia, “I was particularly keen to join the Leadstoyou team as I was eager to develop my skills across all of the digital marketing channels and felt that Leadstoyou had the expertise in PPC, Display, Email, Affiliates, SEO and other channels, to support me with this.”

“So far I am learning new skills every day and am excited to watch the business rapidly growing.”

Since joining the Company, Alicia has already achieved her Google Online Marketing Certification.

By involving focus groups of local employers the new 18-month apprenticeship has been designed to be properly responsive to modern business needs, including subjects such as social media, imaging and creating content for websites. A Skills Officer from the college visits apprentices regularly in their new workplaces.

Speaking from Exeter College, Stacey Hedge said, “we are all so pleased Alicia is progressing so well at Leadstoyou and we hope she will pave the way for our future Digital Apprentices to join the Company.”

For the past 7 years Leadstoyou have been using their digital expertise to gather enquiries from homeowners looking for home improvements or to make savings on their energy expenditure by investing in up-to-date technology or renewable energy systems. The enquiries they generate through their website, findenergysavings.co.uk and through digital platforms such as Facebook, are then passed to verified contractors throughout the UK.

Their experience in the use of digital media has seen over 500,000 enquiries passed to contractors over the 7-year period and the Company is constantly looking for staff to help them cope with the demand.

“One of our major challenges is finding the number of staff we need to keep up with the enquiries we generate,” said Justin Elliott, Managing Director, “and we see the Apprenticeship scheme as a great route for young people to develop the kinds of digital skills we need whilst offering them a longer term career path and would invite anyone interested in a career in digital marketing to get in touch with us.”