level 3

Level 3 Operational Firefighter Apprenticeship

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Young adult male firefighter holds his helmet while leaning on a fire engine.

Are you looking for a role that involves rescuing and protecting both people and animals, and ensuring the safety of those in your company? The Level 3 Operational Firefighter apprenticeship could be for you! This Level 3 apprenticeship centres on quickly and calmly tackling a wide range of emergency situations that may arise at any moment.

Entry Requirements and Format

Individual employers may set their own entry requirements for this apprenticeship, though the minimum will always be a Level 2 in English and Maths, or the ability to achieve this prior to taking your End Point Assessment at the end of the qualification. Below is a guide to the assessment methods and timeline for the Level 3 Operational Firefighter apprenticeship.

A blue and grey table highlighting the end-point assessment period for the course.
A summary table of the end-point assessment period and requirements for the course.

The Level 3 Operational Firefighter Apprenticeship lasts for 24 months (2 years), during which time you’ll meet 14 duties, as well as developing and demonstrating a vast amount of knowledge, skills and behaviours.

Your duties will include, but aren’t limited to:

  • Educating the community to improve awareness of fire and rescue safety matters
  • Saving and preserving endangered life, including the rescuing of human or animal life
  • Carrying out responsibilities within the incident command system alongside other agencies during fire and operational incidents
  • Testing and maintaining equipment, as well as contributing to fire safety inspections and outcomes.

Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours

Throughout the 24 month apprenticeship, you will develop and display a range of knowledge, skills and behaviours that contribute to the duties listed above, as well as the general health & safety of yourself, your colleagues, the general public, and the environment. There are set knowledge, skills and behaviours that you must demonstrate and show you can implement to be successful in your apprenticeship; the full list can be found on the Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education website. Below are some of the core elements that you will encounter throughout your course.

Knowledge
There are 15 knowledge points that must be developed and demonstrated throughout your apprenticeship. These include those with clear methods of implementation, such as various fire extinguishing media, how to use personal and respiratory equipment, and how to carry out treatment to casualty. The knowledge also covers theory such as:

  • The principles of JESIP (Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles)
  • Hazards, risks and control measures across a range of emergencies
  • Your duty within relevant legislation. 

Skills
In addition to the core knowledge, there are 14 important skills that you must consistently and properly demonstrate throughout your apprenticeship and assessment in order to be successful. Most of these are skills that can be used across multiple roles or situations, whereas some are specific to your Operational Firefighter role. More transferable skills include carrying out safe working practices in accordance with legal requirements; communicating effectively; taking responsibility for effective performance within your role, and supporting the development of your colleagues. Role-specific skills that must be demonstrated include safely working at height; safely resolving incidents involving hazardous materials, and extricating casualties from situations of entrapment. Through building and showing your ability to use these skills, you will be able to successfully complete your Operational Firefighter apprenticeship.

Behaviours
Finally, there are six key behaviours that you must display in order to be successful. These six behaviours can all be transferred between careers and companies; they include:

  • A commitment to integrity and diversity
  • Embracing and promoting company values
  • Working collaboratively
  • Situational awareness by maintaining an active awareness of the working environment.
A group of firefighters stand in a circle while receiving team building training.
Some of the behaviours assessed in the apprenticeship focus on collaboration and teamwork.

Conclusion

The Level 3 Operational Firefighter Apprenticeship is the perfect gateway into a role as a first responder in the protective services for anyone looking to serve their community. The knowledge, skills and behaviours you learn throughout the apprenticeship will put you in the best position to move into your next role, whether it’s within the protective services or elsewhere. Many graduates of this apprenticeship go on to work in fire services across England, as well as the Armed Forces, civil aviation, and manufacturing and engineering industries.

This is the opportunity for you to support and protect your community and receive a professional qualification, all while earning a living wage and developing both personally and professionally.

Risk Officer and Compliance Apprenticeship Level 3

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Do you want a career with a range of high earning industries? Working in a compliance and risk role, you could find yourself with a range of different sectors from data security, energy, insurance, finance and many more. You could even one day find yourself a chief risk officer. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, read on to find out if you want to start your journey today!

Compliance and Risk Officer Apprenticeship Level 3
Image courtesy of Christina Morillo on Pexels, CC BY CC0 1.0

Risk Officer and Compliance Role

The length of this apprenticeship is typically 15 to 18 months depending on the circumstances. Once completed you will be fully competent in the role and will be able to continue your career development. Within the compliance and risk section of a business, you can find yourself working on specific problems with occur, liaising with your team and managers in order to analyse data and produce reports. This role will therefore require responsibility and a strong ethical mindset along with great team working and communication skills in order to effectively diffuse situations and take on problems head on. 

The Compliance and Risk Officer Apprenticeship offers a range of different learning opportunities within the workplace. Upon completion of the apprenticeship, you are given the necessary tools to be opened to a range of roles across industries such as Compliance Officer with an average UK salary of £35,044. Senior Compliance Officer with an average UK salary of £47,124 or a Lead Compliance Officer with a UK average salary of £50,929. There is no doubt this apprenticeship can open the gates to a successful career with huge earning potential.  

Entry Requirements and Criteria

In order to qualify for this risk officer role, the entry requirements include Level 2 maths and English and advise employers other experience could be considered as an alternative. It is worth noting an employer may hire you based on your personality and potential rather than your grades; this gives everyone the opportunity to succeed in an apprenticeship. 

Core Competencies

As part of your apprenticeship, you will have to satisfy a range of different competencies. Examples follow: 

  • To understand the financial services legal and regulatory framework understanding the role of different regulators. The apprentice must also be fully aware of the implications if there was a failure of compliance.  
  • To understand the role their business plays within the financial services industry, along with the products and services offered to customers. The apprentice must also understand the organisations values and professional standards where necessary. To have an interpretation of external factors which impact the financial services and relevant best practice.
  • The apprentice must understand a range of systems, tools and processes used within their role in line with standards to be met. 
  • The apprentice must be able to use a variety of company systems to successfully deliver services to customers and employees and are therefore able to advise customers and colleagues based on regulatory requirements and organisational policies. The apprentice must be able to work with a range of stakeholders.
  • The apprentice must be able to harvest and maintain working relationships with a range of stakeholders, both internal and external.
  • To be trustworthy in their actions choosing to do the right thing in difficult situations. 
  • To maintain a positive working attitude under pressure. 

Qualifications 

There are a range of qualifications available with the Compliance and Risk Officer Apprenticeship Level 3. Following the employer’s discretion one of the following bodies with award your qualification:

  • International Compliance Association
  • Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment
  • The London Institute of Banking and Finance
  • Chartered Banker Institute
  • Chartered Insurance Institute
  • Chartered Institute of Credit Management
  • Institute of Risk Management

Conclusion 

person holding certificate
Image courtesy of Ekrulila on Pexels, CC BY CC0 1.0

As you can see from above, the Level 3 Compliance and Risk Officer apprenticeship is the perfect starting point for any individual looking for a career within the financial, security and data sectors (not limited to). The core skills you will cover within this apprenticeship not only improve your workplace skills but also help develop personal relationship and life skills which will help you grow alongside your roll. With the digital industry growing year on year now is the perfect time to get into an apprenticeship. If you’re looking for some help with your interview skills visit this guide on how to prepare for an interview.  

Also be sure to check out our latest blog posts.

Dos and Don’ts For PPC Digital Marketing Campaigns

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When starting out on your Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship, or coming from a more traditional marketing background, PPC can often feel like a different world. The below do’s and don’ts will help provide a clearer picture on what it takes to develop and run a successful PPC marketing campaign.

First let’s start with the basics – what does PPC mean?

Pay Per Click Tiles

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It entails the use of search ads and discovery ads to encourage people to click through to your website. Each time someone clicks on your ad, you pay for that click.

Other key PPC terms to know before reading on are:

  • ETAs: Extended Text Ads
  • RSAs: Responsive Text Ads

Let’s get into the Dos and Don’ts!

DO: Consider Your Marketing Goals

When first setting up your PPC campaign there are a number of key decisions you will need to make, one of which is the bid strategy you set the campaign to. In order to decide this, you should consider the goal of your campaign.

There are multiple bid strategy options you can select that align with different aims. The two key ones are:

  • Target CPA Efficiency
  • Target Impression Share

CPA Efficiency Bid Strategy

This is the best option to choose if your campaign has a goal of maximising conversions within a certain budget. It works by selectively bidding to show ads only to the people that are likely to convert, reducing clicks with low intent and increasing CPA efficiency. KPIs to look at are CPA and CvR.

Target Impression Share Bid Strategy

This is the best option to choose if your campaign has a goal of increased visibility and awareness. It seeks to show your ads to a large number of people, meeting an impression share threshold on the search engines results page. It can help gain more share of voice and visibility over your competitors. KPIs to look at here are Impression Share, Impressions, and Clicks

DON’T: Be Too Generic

In PPC, budgets are important to keep track of and use efficiently. You don’t want to bid on irrelevant keywords that are only tangentially related to your product/website. No matter the search volume they may have, it will only lead to a high bounce rate, wasted spend and negative customer interactions as searchers can’t find what they’re looking for.

Do your research to find and understand which keywords are the most relevant and valuable to you to drive target audiences to your site.

Tip: Check out the Google Keywords Planner and Ahrefs tools for keyword insights!

Similarly to the above, being too generic with the language used in your text ads or discovery ads can also lead to lower CTRs and/or increased bounce rates, spending money without seeing any returns.

Ensure headers and descriptions are to the point, contain key messaging, and are relevant to the searcher as well as reflecting what’s on the landing page.

You can find out more about best practise for building Search ads here.

DO: Let The Data Guide You

PPC campaigns have a plethora of data measurements to look at to understand success. You can use platforms like Search Ads 360 to find Cost, Impressions, CTR, CPA, Impression Share, CvR and bounce rate all in one place.

After setting a campaign live, you should be checking performance regularly and constantly assessing whether the campaign is still meeting your marketing goals. Here it is best to let the data guide you – don’t be afraid to pause ads if they are not delivering the results you expected.

Staying reactive and basing decisions off the data will be a huge benefit. If you are able to see that one campaign or ad is doing great while another is getting no traction at all, you can re-phase budget to push the high performing ads further and capitalise on this.

Data also is the best indication that you need to make changes to your campaigns. Low performance can indicate the need to re-evaluate and update your keyword list, check landing page sitelinks are all correct, or to look into competitor activity and visibility.

Data Image

DON’T: Forget About The Wider Industry

Google and the wider PPC industry is consistently changing, and gaining new regulations. It’s important to stay across these things so you’re not caught out down the line and can plan for future campaigns.

For example, Google have announced that ETA search ad formats will be completely unavailable from June 2022, replaced fully with RSAs. Being across this news from early on allows a company to adapt, testing what messaging and copy works best in this format rather than be caught off guard. Read more about this change here.

Another interesting development is the news that we will be cookieless by the end of 2023, meaning third party cookies will no longer be supported across Google Chrome. PPC marketers need time to assess how this will impact audience (re)targeting and what this means for future strategy.

DO: Test and Learn

Within PPC campaigns there are many test and learn opportunities which can be utilised to optimise your campaign performance, meet KPI targets and achieve marketing goals.

A/B tests are a great place to start here. These work by having two ads put in rotation, standardised expect for one difference between them. Within platforms like Search Ads 360 you can view performance at ad level and compare across ads to understand which change should be optimised toward, for example which key messaging drives the highest CTR.

Similarly, you can test formats and creative of discovery ads in this way, i.e. carousels vs static images, to help inform activity for future campaigns. Testing different bid strategies as well as audience targeting strategies (using affinity audiences, in-market audiences, customer audiences) can also be valuable, especially when considering how to expand reach and grow.

DON’T: Forget You’re Part Of A Team

Though PPC activity can seem very self-contained, it’s important to remember that PPC is still part of a whole marketing strategy. Remember to communicate with the relevant teams to stay up to date about upcoming trading offers and new key messaging and/or campaigns to support, as well as with the site personnel to stay across landing page changes and potential updates you may otherwise miss.

Keep being collaborative to ensure your campaigns are updated with the correct information, messaging and targeting!

Conclusion

Though invaluable for anyone to learn about in today’s marketing landscape, for current Level 3 Digital Marketing apprentices, undertaking a PPC campaign is an amazing way to hit specialist area and implementation competencies.

I hope these Dos and Don’ts have offered some insight into best practise and how to develop successful PPC digital marketing campaigns, optimising performance for your business. If you’re looking to learn about PPC marketing in more detail, check out this course on Skillshop that gives a comprehensive introduction to all things Search ads.

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5 Top tips to create a successful blog post for your digital marketing level 3 apprenticeship

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What is a blog post?

A blog is short for “weblog” and they have been around since 1994 with over 600 million blogs on the world wide web today. A blog post is a discussion or an informative page on a website that offers its readers some form of valuable content. Their authors are somewhat classed as “blogger” or “bloggers” and they typically write about what is interesting or relevant to them at the time using entries posted in chronological order, writing in the same style as a diary or a journal.

How can blogging benefit a business in its marketing efforts?

Blogging is acknowledged for being super popular amongst B2B organisations with helping the promotion of products and services. Why? With more than 4.66 Billion active internet users, blogs create connections between a business and its relevant audience by helping to drive website traffic into conversion for leads. They are a great way to form trust with potential prospects, building stronger relationships with its readers whilst keeping them up to date.

So you’ve just started out with your blogging skills in your level 3 digital marketing apprenticeship and you don’t know where to start. Don’t get overwhelmed, the whole purpose of this blog is to help you in your beginner’s digital marketing apprenticeship So let’s get right down to it with our top tips.

#1 Headlines and Titles

Your blog headline should be powerful enough to get your viewer to want to read the full article. To create a good headline you should keep it personal and specific to the content inside so viewers know if they want to read it or not. If you are stuck on inspiration try looking at a newspapers or a magazines to see how their headlines are structured, you can also find our frameworks guide useful here:

The How to Framework – This is good for viewers that want to educate themselves on particular information.
Example – ‘How to create a good social media strategy

The Listicle Framework – This is good for viewers who enjoy reading about numbers like this blog! They are also good for viewers who like their content broken up so it is easier for them to digest.
Example – ‘5 top tips to create a successful blog’

The Question Framework – This would appeal to a more specific type of viewer. Targeted questions make strong headlines.
Example – ‘How do you make an article go viral?’

The Storytelling Framework – This intrigues viewers, as it creates interest for the reader with a narrative structure. It has a storybook likeliness about it.
Example – ‘How we developed more engagement through social media’

The Command framework – This is effective with viewers as it is straight to the point and easy to read.
Example – ‘Read this if you want to gain more open’s in your emails!’

Once you’ve jotted down a few ideas for your headline you can go to the advanced marketing headline analyzer to test how effective the algorithms think they are. And don’t forget, use words that drive action they will help with user clicks!

#2 The Structure and approach

The approach:

The style you should write will depend on the audience you are trying to communicate with but most of the time it should be conversational and informal. As a rule with blog writing, you should always put the reader first like you are talking to them about a topic including the use of ‘I’ and ‘You’ in your text so it reads more of a conversation.

Blogging is more of an informal platform to communicate to readers, with this in mind, paragraphs and sentences should be kept short so it’s easier for readers to take information in bite-size chunks and avoid confusion.

Do not use Jargon unless necessary. The purpose of your blog is to communicate information to viewers, this is best done using simple words so stay clear from the long complicated words that most readers do not understand. You have to break it down for them and see yourself as though you are teaching intermediate students.

Use statistics. Be more specific to the information you are trying to deliver. You need proof to back up the facts and information you are trying to educate your readers on to show viewers that they can trust in what you are writing for them. As humans, we have always judged that If someone else is talking about it then it’s probably true.

The Structure

Always start off with an introduction as this will be the opening of your blog which hook viewers with a bold statement to read the rest of the article. The introduction should be a short overview of what will be covered in the blog. 

Then write up your conclusion, this should relate back to your introduction and summarise the important information and what the post was about. This is your opportunity to go over the main message you are communicating in the blog trying to indicate to the reader what they should take away from it. Make sure to label this subheading as ‘conclusion’ or something along the same lines like ‘finial thoughts’

Finally, move on to fleshing out the main body of text, this should include subheadings throughout to able readers to skim through the content. Paragraphs in the main body should be around 5-6 lines long maximum, you want to keep your reader engaged not bore them with large amounts of text at one time.

#3 Imagery and Media

Relevant images and media use are just as important as the text in your post. They offer a visual element to your blog that supports everything you’ve written about in your article. Just like the headline and introduction, your blog will not work without some form of visuals. 

Readers want to get to the point as fast as they can. Images can help tell your story without them having to read the rest of the content in your blog, not that your text isn’t important because it is.

Photos act as a tool to transform your blog from a standard chunk of text to an exciting blog with more than 1 element, making the text more diverse and attractive.

Images can also help give your readers a bit of a rest by breaking up chunks of text so it is easier for them to digest. They are used to separate sections in blogs which makes your points easier for readers to understand. 

Make sure that you insert clear crisp images, there’s nothing worse than coming across an image that looks like it was developed in the early 2000s. High-quality imagery keeps your bounce rates at bay. Nobody likes a poor quality image or file. Image quality must be taken into consideration as the better quality they are the more appealing your blog will be to your readers. 

If you’re not using your own created imagery or files you will need to check if it is legal for you to use them as a lot of images have copyrights. The consequences of violating copyrights are serious so you’ll want to check ahead before posting online. You can find a bunch of free stock image websites here :

Stockunlimited.com
Freeimages.com
Pexels.com
Pixabay.com
Unsplash.com 
Pikwizard.com

#4 Facts in Links

Everybody loves to click a link and everybody loves factual information. Clicking a link can add an exciting feature to the text sections of your article. It takes the user from one page to another providing a more in-depth experience white it opens up your sources and gives your blog posts more credibility.

You can direct readers to your other blogs and specific parts of your website by inserting hyperlinks into your blogs. This will boost page views and improve your page ranking as they help crawlers and indexing on the web improve your overall SEO. Readers will also stay on your site longer increasing ‘time on site’ and lowering bounce rate stats. 

Other bloggers and websites appreciate being linked to as it drives more organic traffic their way. This would be classed as an external link. You should really reach out to the website you link to, to inform them that you’ve included their site in your blog. You could also ask them to share your blog which creates a benefit for everybody.

There are many benefits to using links in your blog, just don’t overdo it. 

#5 The Keywords

Keywords are the words people type into a search engine. Finding the right keywords for your blog will be an essential part of your blogging strategy. They help your users find and identify your blog post through their search queries to get their questions answered. 

You’ll want to think about the audience you want to target and what keywords you want to rank for. Keywords help promote your SEO by generating more organic traffic from search engines. You can search for keywords through keyword tool generators such as Ahrefs.com, Wordstream.com and many others you can find on the web. 

Once you have made a list of the keywords you want to use, It is important to evaluate each one for their difficulty score. Each score is calculated by the strength of pages that are currently ranking for page 1 on a search. If you have a fairly low domain authority I’d start off with keywords that have a score of below 30. For more on Keyword difficulty checkout this Semrush’s article

In Conclusion

Blog writing is not that hard if you follow these top tips. You’ll be on the fast track to creating a unique, engaging blog post in no time. Even if you are a beginner. The more blog posts you construct the better you will become, practice makes perfect right? Blog writing is an excellent way to improve your writing skills for sure.

If you found this article useful and want to learn more Digital Marketing skills, head over to our website
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Metal Fabricator Apprenticeship – Level 3

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Sheet metal bending in factory

Have you always wanted to work hands-on creating some of the most impressive pieces of craftsmanship from giant structures, to crucial components within some of the most important machines in our modern society? If this sounds like you then read through this information to find out how completing a level 3 metal fabricator apprenticeship can help you kickstart a career to fulfil your passion.

Entry requirements for a level 3 Metal Fabricator Apprenticeship

The entry requirements for a Level 3 metal fabricator apprenticeship are generally set by the individual employers. However, something that can increase the chances of success would be to have 4 GCSEs at Grade C/4 or equivalent, which should include Mathematics, English, and a Science. Furthermore, showing enthusiasm and a passion for the work through being able to talk about aspects of the role even on a basic level can go a long way.

Future job opportunities

The Metal Fabricator apprenticeship provides opportunities to work manufacturing anything out metal which includes bridges, ships, aircrafts, automotive parts, etc. From this apprenticeship, you can initially move into a full-time position as a metal fabricator, which can from there possibly move into roles such as an engineering technician, Civil engineer, and design and development engineer. For a job such as the latter, you could be earning an estimated salary of £45k which shows that this is a path that could prove to be rewarding.

Main responsibilities of a metal fabricator apprentice

The role of a metal fabricator is primarily working with metals such as rolled steel joists, columns, metals sheets, etc, to manufacture parts for multiple industries. This work may be carried out alone or within a team, in factories or operational sites. The size and aspects of the metalwork will be varied, with small intricate components, to structures that will require cranes to manoeuvre. Furthermore, you will be responsible for communicating with multiple other people involved in the manufacturing, production and repair processes.

Metal fabricator in action

Skills Involved

This apprenticeship will allow you to gain a solid foundation of skills that will not only help prepare you for the complexity of the role itself but also prepare you for the workplace and building relationships. Skills that you will find during this include:

  • Work safely at all times, comply with health & safety legislation, regulations and organisational requirements
  • Comply with environmental legislation, regulations and organisational requirements
  • Obtain, check and use the appropriate documentation (such as job instructions, drawings, quality control documentation)
  • Carry out relevant planning and preparation activities before commencing work activity
  • Carry out the required checks (such as quality, compliance or testing) using the correct procedures, processes and/or equipment
  • Complete any required documentation using the defined recording systems at the appropriate stages of the work activity
  • Cut and form Metal for the production of fabricated products
  • Carry out the relevant preparation before starting the joining fabrication activity

Conclusion

The Level 3 Metal Fabrication Apprenticeship is a fantastic opportunity to gain crucial on the job experience in a competitive industry, as well as increasing your level of knowledge and qualifications to help further your career opportunities.

If you’re scrambling for more knowledge on the metal fabrication industry and want to read up further on relevant news give some of these pieces a read.

For even more information on apprenticeships as a whole come over to our blog. Similarly, why not give our socials a follow.

Level 3 Marine Engineer Apprenticeship

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A container ship at sea

Would you love a career designing, building and maintaining all sorts of boats, from submarines to superyachts? If so, read on to find out how the level 3 marine engineer apprenticeship could be an ideal choice for you.

Jobs and entry criteria for the level 3 marine engineer apprenticeship

A marine engineer’s tasks are varied: from installing marine engines to working on boat layout and engineering systems. A marine engineer’s yearly salary is a lucrative £44,720, plus there’s currently a shortage of marine engineers in the UK, with 36,000 job openings predicted by 2027 (Source: LMI For All). Whilst individual employers set specific requirements for entry, a marine engineer apprenticeship typically requires GCSEs (or equivalent) at A*-C in Maths, English, a Science, and Technology. You’ll also be able to demonstrate great problem solving abilities, plus strong teamwork, IT and numeracy skills on your CV.

Key responsibilities of a marine engineer apprentice

A marine engineer is meticulous, reliable, and able to work both individually and in a team. As a marine engineer apprentice, you’ll learn about the design layout of a marine system or component, how to interpret the designer’s technical plans and data, and how to finalise the cost and time length of a project. You’ll study how to select, maintain and store tools and technical equipment, as well as be able to source, choose and interpret technical data. You’ll also learn advanced engineering skills to install and maintain marine engines and marine ancillary systems and components.

Marine engineers at work
Marine engineers at work

Level 3 Marine Engineer Core Competencies

As part of your job, you will carry out duties that will satisfy a number of competencies. Some examples are:

  • make recommendations to ensure optimal performance of boats
  • consider sustainability and environmental impacts when making, safety, quality and cost decisions
  • use hand tools to cut, drill, shape and finish components to tolerances
  • check/inspect components for robustness, fit and tolerances
  • check/test/diagnose marine engineering components to company and manufacturing standards
  • apply safety and social responsibility practices when working at sea
  • undertake basic crew roles

The occupational standard, assessment plan and occupational brief for the marine engineer apprenticeship will help you understand these and other competencies in more detail. These three documents are key to understanding what you should to do to prepare for end-point assessment.

Professional recognition after completing the marine engineer apprenticeship

After you’ve completed the marine engineer apprenticeship, you’ll be recognised by the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (ImarEST) at Engineering Technician level.

Conclusion

The work of a marine engineer is fascinating and varied, and a marine engineer apprenticeship opens you up to a career path with lots of opportunities. You could work on leisure boats, such as canal barges or superyachts, or join the Royal Navy and specialise in submarines! Plus, extremely experienced marine engineers can expect to earn up to £55,000 a year!

Learn more about engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships.

Level 3 Digital Marketing Apprenticeship

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Do you want to take control of the marketing future in the digital age? Put your social media skills to work? A digital marketing apprenticeship could be the perfect route for you!

Jobs this apprenticeship could lead to

There are many routes to take of off the back of all the skills you will pick up from this apprenticeship. We have listed a few of the many job titles possible below. All salaries are estimated from Glassdoor.

  • Digital Marketing Executive – £25,000
  • Social Media Executive – £23,673
  • Digital Marketing Analyst – £31,773
  • Digital Advertising Executive – £27,973

Although it’s interesting to see what salary these jobs can land you, there are many more exciting aspects of these roles. Carrying the online presence of a brand is so important in this day and age and this is how the consumer forms their opinions.

Entry Criteria

Individual employers will set their own entry criteria but typically you will have achieved grade C or above in at least five GCSEs including English and Maths. In addition, you will need at least two A levels or equivalent Level 3 qualifications.  For a list of A-Level equivalent qualifications, click here. You may have previously been in a Digital Marketer role or be able to demonstrate a real passion and personal experience in digital marketing but this is not mandatory.

Behaviours you should have

This role takes a person who is really up to the job! Have a look at the following behaviours to see if you are up for the role.

  • Great communication and listening skills
  • Able to work under pressure and well within a team
  • Evaluate how work impacts others in a cultural sense
  • High attention to detail and successfully work to deadlines
  • Respect for compliance, procedures, and regulation
  • Enthusiastic and flexible approach to work and to personal development
  • Logical thinking and a creative approach to problem-solving

There are a plethora of other great attributes that would also make you a great fit to become a digital marketer.

Skills you will develop

Along with all the positive behaviours you will bring to the role, you will also learn and pick up many skills to take with you throughout your career. The aim of an apprenticeship is really that you will be professionally trained whilst continuing to be a great asset to your employer.

  • Apply the 4 marketing principles (product, price, place, promotion) and considerations of the business/marketing campaign.
  • Implement content for the different audiences, online channels and create clear “Call to Actions” and user journey’s
  • Manage, plan, specify, lead and report on digital marketing projects.
  • Manage and optimise key channels and content within a digital marketing plan.
  • Apply a marketing mix / digital marketing mix to meet customer expectations.
  • Identify, recognise and understand internal and external business intelligence and factors that may impact future operations.
  • Interpret, communicate and brief internal or external stakeholders on digital business requirements.
  • An understanding of the principles of coding

Again, although this list is completely accurate, it is not the full extent of all the complex skills you will pick up. You would also come away from this experience with a variety of soft skills. These will be transferable through both your professional and personal life.

Level 3 Travel Consultant Apprenticeship

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Travel Consultant

Are you passionate about travel and exploring new places? Could you provide outstanding customer service whilst helping to deliver complex travel arrangements, accommodation bookings and ancillary services? A Level 3 Travel Consultant Apprenticeship might be for you! Find out more about starting or developing your career with this training.

Responsibilities, Jobs, Entry Requirements and Salary

Travel Consultants typically specialise in either corporate or leisure travel, however the skills in either of these roles are transferable across the industry. Corporate Travel Consultants typically take care of business travellers, accounting for factors such as location, business facilities and corporate budgets. Leisure Travel Consultants typically sell experiences to customers which include package holidays, weddings abroad, cruises and seasonal activities. Key responsibilities of this apprenticeship include effectively organising customer’s needs and keeping ahead of demand for new experiences.

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Before completing the apprenticeship, apprentices are expected to have a minimum of Level 2 (GCSE equivalent) English and Maths.

On completion of your apprenticeship, the opportunities for career progression are vast. You may want to work in a high street store as a travel agent, work online for a company with call centres, or perhaps specialise in areas such as luxury travel. As you develop skills and experience, you could move into a team leader or management position, or even choose to become an Independent Travel Consultant.

The average salary for a travel consultant in the UK is £19,299.

Travel consultant jobs can also come with added benefits such as discounted travel and opportunities to visit destinations to gain knowledge of the places you are trying to sell. As with many roles, salary can also be increased by meeting or exceeding sales targets.

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Level 3 Travel Consultant Core Competencies

Throughout this apprenticeship, you will need to cover a number of core competencies to showcase your knowledge of key areas:

  • Geography – Knowledge of popular travel destinations, ability to source relevant geographical information and proactively keep updated with worldwide current affairs to help inform travel plans.
  • Travel Information – Key information and documentation including passports, visa requirements, time zones, customs and foreign exchange.
  • Industry Knowledge – This competency covers systems in the travel industry and how to correctly carry these out.
  • Travel Options – Knowledge of a variety of travel options such as transportation, accommodation and itinerary.
  • Product and Service – Knowledge of key USP’s (unique selling points) and how to present these to the customer.
  • Customer – How to identify different customer profiles and communicate with them effectively to meet their requirements.
  • Legal and Compliance – How to keep customers details safely and lawfully in compliance with travel industry regulations, codes of practise and business policy.
  • Industry Technology – Understand how to utilise the appropriate technology in line with customer and business procedures.
  • Business – Meeting targets and understanding how this assists the business.
  • Sales – Importance of meeting targets and upselling.
  • Team & Personal Performance – Apprentices must be able to work effectively in a team and individually to enhance customer experience.
  • Communication – How to communicate professionally.
  • Sustainability – Understand how business practise affects the environment and how to minimise the impact.

Course Content

Apprentices will begin by preparing a portfolio of evidence known as ‘My Journey’, demonstrating their application of knowledge, skills and behaviours throughout their apprenticeship.

Following completion of this evidence, the synoptic assessment will take place. This is split into a Knowledge Test, a multiple-choice test comprised of knowledge recall and scenario-based questions, and a Professional Discussion, a structured meeting led by an independent assessor to discuss performance throughout the apprenticeship and overall achievement of knowledge, skills and behaviour.

The duration of this apprenticeship is 12-24 months (depending on prior attainment).

Conclusion

A Level 3 Travel Consultant apprenticeship is the perfect opportunity to begin or progress in a career in the travel industry. Completing this training will make you well positioned for progression, as the apprenticeship is recognised by leading companies such as the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC) and ABTA the Travel Association.

Tired of searching for ‘apprenticeships near me?’ If this role isn’t quite what you’re looking for, we have a host of information of the wide range of apprenticeships available from Levels 3 through to 7. Find out more here.

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Level 3 Digital Marketer apprenticeship

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Level 3 Digital Marketer apprenticeship

What to expect in this apprenticeship

The primary role of a digital marketer is to define, design, build and implement digital campaigns across a variety of online and social media platforms to drive customers acquisition and retention and customer engagement.Typically, you will be working as part of a team, in which you’ll have responsibility for some of the straightforward elements of the overall marketing plan or campaign.

This apprenticeship will take be a great stepping stone into various job roles with salaries of £25,000 and higher:

  • Digital Marketing Assistant
  • Digital Marketing Executive
  • Digital Marketing Co-ordinator
  • Campaign Executive
  • Social Media Executive
  • Content Co-ordinator
  • Email Marketing Assistant
  • SEO Executive
  • Analytics Executive
  • Digital Marketing Technologist

Entry requirement

Individual employers will set the selection criteria, but this might include GCSEs, A levels, a level 2 apprenticeship or other relevant qualification.

I personally only have 3 A-levels split across 3 years rather than the normal 2, but, I believe not only did my GCSE grades help me but the way I carried myself in the interview. I came prepared e.g. bring a pen and paper; I spoke clearly and with confidence. I looked up information about the company before hand; I wore smart attire to the interview; I always always tried to smile (do not force anything as they will tell that you haven’t prepared yourself).

Technical Competencies

An apprenticeships is a ‘learn as you earn’ experience that looks amazing on a CV. There are competencies that you as an apprentice will successfully complete in order to pass the scheme. This also acts as a template for companies because it helps them plan what tasks you’ll complete which will allow you to progress to higher roles in your career path. The competencies include:

  • Written communication: applies a good level of written communication skills for a range of audiences and digital platforms and with regard to the sensitivity of communication
  • Research: analyses and contributes information on the digital environment to inform short and long term digital communications strategies and campaigns
  • Technologies: recommends and applies effective, secure and appropriate solutions using a wide variety of digital technologies and tools over a range of platforms and user interfaces to achieve marketing objectives
  • Data: reviews, monitors and analyses online activity and provides recommendations and insights to
    others

Technical knowledge and understanding

Technical skills are the abilities and knowledge needed to perform specific tasks. In this digital marketing apprenticeship you’ll learn a lot whether it be through the day to day tasks or the online course you have to. The criteria includes the following:

  • Understands the principles of coding like MTA HTML 5
  • Understands and can apply basic marketing principles using Google Square
  • Understands and can apply the customer life cycle using Dot Native

This may look intimidating however once your working, this will be second nature to you!

I had to complete a Dot native course which took a month whilst working at BT as a digital marketing apprentice. This was a very useful course as I learnt a lot about SEO. Search engine optimisation is a section completed outside of my team for the pages I work on. This forced me to not only talk to people I wouldn’t normally interact with if I didn’t understand something in the course, but once I completed it, I came to meetings with a better understanding of what they’re discussing. I would highly it recommend it to other apprentices as they are all novices just like me in this field.

Success!

The apprenticeships typically takes 12-18 months to complete and a level 2 English and maths will need to be achieved, if not already, prior to taking the end point assessment. Once completed you are recognised for entry on to the Register of IT Technicians and eligible to apply for registration. Completion of the apprenticeship would also allow access to join as an Affiliate (Professional) member of the CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) and/or Associate membership of BCS.

Do’s and Dont’s

Do:
– ask silly but relevant questions, you are a beginner as leaving it too late will be even worse
– talk to as many people as possible so you know who to go to for help
– read up on things in your extra time as it could be really value
– look at competitor sites (anyone selling the same product as you) and take away ideas that you fell could be incorporated on your page while making it unique
– be punctual or even early as you are the beginner so a lot of eye will be on you 		Don’t:
– give up as it took me two years to understand everything
– wear just anything to work, be professional

Digital Marketing Apprenticeships

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What Does A Digital Marketing Apprenticeship Involve?

Are you interested in starting a digital marketing apprenticeship? With different levels of apprenticeship available, and the diversity within the digital marketing industry, it can be useful to have an idea of what a digital marketing role might involve. Keep reading below to find out what typical duties and responsibilities are for a digital marketing apprentice.

What Does Digital Marketing Involve?

Digital marketing is broad subject and covers a lot of different sub-topics. So, as a digital marketing apprentice your role will very much depend on the organisation you are working for, and what their requirements are.

In general, digital marketing relates to advertising and promotion done online. That could include managing a website, social media account, running ad campaigns, making sure your organisation shows up in search results, or something else. But, there are few key areas that digital marketing is often broken down into.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing is an inclusive term for any marketing meant to help a website get seen in search results. This is often broken down further into two more specific areas: search engine optimisation (SEO), and pay-per-click (PPC).

SEO, sometimes called organic search, is how to structure a website, write content, and generate links back to your website, which all contribute to search engine algorithms finding your website to be of high quality, authority, and trustworthiness. It’s all focused around what search algorithms rank highly in results, but that usually just means doing what is best for the user. There are hundreds of factors that go into helping a website rank highly on search engines, so this can be a very specialist area to get into.

PPC on the other hand relates to paid ads. This involves creating ads to show on search pages and bidding on which position your ads will be shown in – will they be shown at the top of the page, above organic results? Or will they be shown at the bottom, or on the second or third page of results? That’s what a PPC manager works to improve, while also keeping the cost of clicks and leads as low as possible.

Social Media

Like search, social media also has an organic aspect and a paid ads aspect. Organic social media is, simply put, publishing content that you share for free on websites such as Facebook and Instagram. Paid social media, however, involves paying those sites to show your content in front of specific audience segments that you specify. For example, you can pay for Facebook to show a post sharing a link to your blog post about Lord Of The Rings, to people that have shown an interest in Lord Of The Rings. Like PPC managers, social ads managers will work to make sure content is shown to the most relevant audiences, for the lowest cost.

Email Marketing

As a staple of online communication, email can often be overlooked as a form of marketing. However, email still boasts one of the highest click through rates of any digital medium. Email marketing is all about building an email list of people who are interested in what your business offers, and send them emails that is beneficial to them.

What Does A Digital Marketing Apprenticeship Involve?

What Will You Learn On Your Apprenticeship?

As a part of your apprenticeship, you can learn how to effectively manage campaigns for what we’ve described already. But, you will also learn how to:

  • Conduct keyword research to inform search engine marketing
  • Create a marketing plan and schedule to help you manage your campaigns
  • Write compelling copy to prompt readers to get in touch with your organisation
  • Measure and evaluate campaign performance, to highlight areas for improvement

Digital marketing is an incredibly varied field to work in, with many specialisms available. So, be sure to do your own research to find out which areas interest you.

Conclusion

As mentioned, digital marketing is a wide area to pursue. The number of specialist areas available is immense, but that does mean that some areas won’t interest you – but there are almost certainly some areas that will! Take a look at the digital apprenticeships we offer, such as the level 3 or level 4 digital marketing apprenticeship, to see what’s available to get started with your career in digital marketing.