Digital Marketing Apprentice Review

The apprenticeship scheme is made up of 3 rotations, the first is a year, the second and third are six months long. Across my rotations I have liaised with internal and external teams to review digital, audio and TV creative as well as media plans, ensuring campaigns are delivered to deadline. I have carried out analysis of campaigns, feeding in to how best to optimise ads and improve sales.

I have developed many more skills with digital tools, though a lot of these are dependent on the rotation you get - I have had the chance to use Tableau, Search Ads 360, Google Ads, Nielsen, Adobe Analytics. Aside from this I've become much more confident in building slides and presenting to people, as well as my overall communication.

I really enjoy my work and I think the rotations are very valuable to do, allowing you to gain a wide variety of skills and knowledge as well as a bigger circle of connections. I found the actual experience of the Multiverse programme more challenging - it's difficult to meet the criteria of the apprenticeship through the roles options Sky provides. As a large company, you are unable to just start a blog or reply to customers on social media for example. Multiverse doesn't take this into account.

As mentioned, the actual work is very enjoyable, and the Multiverse learning is structured fairly well on a monthly basis - it is in the overlap between the two where problems arise. There needs to be a lot of work done on the way early careers at Sky and Multiverse interact and communicate. It's impossible to meet all the criteria of the apprenticeship, despite the breadth of other experience we can show we gained - neither Sky nor Multiverse seems very aware of what the other company asks of it's apprentices and the support they need.

My experience within my rotations has been great, with all my managers being very supportive and understanding of things like Off The Job hours. They offered help when required whilst also giving me responsibilities in the team. Early careers is good at providing soft skills workshops etc, but I think more support could be given socially, allowing the apprentices to form connections across the business, especially as the Grad scheme seems to have so many meet ups. Further support could also be given in terms of the requirements of the Multiverse qualification - the competencies apprentices need to hit were not understood by the people deciding the rotations.

Mutliverse gives you a coach to work with across your qualification, with 1-2-1's occurring every month so you can discuss any questions or issues. I found my coach to be very responsive and supportive, however they were unable to solve bigger issues I brought up, like the lack of communication between Multiverse and Sky Early Careers. I also thought Multiverse could be clearer upfront on the ending process of the apprenticeship and what you need to include in your documents. It felt like we weren't made aware of some key facts until over half way through the course.

The Multiverse courses are useful, giving you a basic understanding of the core marketing principles as well as coding, some of which is helpful to contextualise what you work on in your role. I've found the marketing funnel and customer journey especially came into play in my roles. Not all of them are especially applicable however, and the module teaching ended well before the end of the actual apprenticeship, with only the 1-2-1's with my coach carrying onward. I think my managers and my day to day work upskilled me more than the course itself.

Sky offers a multitude of different groups you can join, and I know people who joined football and netball teams to play with colleagues. Sky are good at organising guest talks and events, alerting you with emails about any upcoming networking or socials, including for things like International Woman's Day. The teams I have experienced are also very inclusive and social, and will often get budgets to do a Christmas/Summer/Easter team meal for example.

Yes

I really enjoy the work I do, and have learned so much from the roles I've been in - I think the opportunity to rotate is great and something others would hugely benefit from. The people I've met here have all been willing to help and upskill me more. The working environment is also really nice, with the Sky campus having a gym, hair salon, multiple cafe's/restaurants and nice outdoor spaces

Make sure you understand the skills you already have and can bring to the table, but also what you want to develop - show that you are willing to learn/try at everything. Especially with rotations you will be starting over in a new team a lot, so you need to really have that desire to grow and upskill yourself.