As We Celebrate National Apprenticeship Week 2023, Let’s Meet Our Apprentices

You have recently completed your apprenticeship and are now Marketing Executive for Autotech Group. Can you tell us a bit more about your apprenticeship route and how this created the foundation for the role you are in now?

I found out about apprenticeships around the time I was doing my GCSEs when a speaker came in to deliver a career talk. They piqued my interest straight away. After that it was always my plan to try and go down the apprenticeship route instead of university.

Unfortunately, many of my peers and I were being pushed down the traditional university route by our schools/colleges, and there wasn’t a lot of support given to those of us who wanted to do an apprenticeship. They just didn’t seem to be clued up on how they work, or where to find one. However, I knew that ultimately this would be the best route for me and, as I was interested in a career in marketing, I started doing my own research and talking to a number of people in the industry and local colleges, before deciding that a Level 3 Marketing Apprenticeship would be my best route into the industry, and that’s when I discovered Autotech Group!

What for you was the benefit versus the traditional university route and where are you at now compared to your school peers?

When I was first introduced to apprenticeships the biggest benefit, we were told was that we wouldn’t have the financial outlay or student loans associated with going to university. However, when I was in the stage of applying for my A-Levels and really setting a plan of where I wanted my career to go, by far the biggest benefit for me was that it was a fast-track to starting my career and getting out into the world, whereas with the university route I would have had to wait at least 2 more years before starting my career. I was also concerned that although I would leave university with a respected qualification, I wouldn’t have a lot experience of working in marketing to aid me in finding a job.

Going down the apprenticeship route ended up being the perfect solution for me and now, two years after starting at Autotech Group as an apprentice, I’m a qualified Marketing Executive. Whereas if I had gone down the university route like some of my former classmates from school, I would not even have graduated yet.

What’s been the most exciting project you’ve worked on to date?

We’re a very collaborative and close-knit marketing team, so I was really lucky in my apprenticeship that I was able to get stuck in with all sides of marketing and get involved in a variety of different projects from the start.

The most exciting project I’ve worked on to date has been working on our motorsport partnerships such as our sponsorship of British Superbike’s Storm Stacey and up-and-coming racing driver Ruben Hage. Motorsport is a big interest of mine and an industry that I had prior experience in, whereas I’d never seen it from the side of sponsorship, so it created the perfect foundation for me to work on all the different aspects of marketing that are involved in a project of that scale. I was quite literally learning as I went, and part of my role has now developed into leading our motorsport partnership projects on behalf of the wider marketing team.

As a young person who not so long ago was searching for my first step into my chosen industry, I’ve really enjoyed working over on our Autotech Academy brand and witnessing how we’re helping other young people to start their careers in automotive.

Any tips you can share with apprentices?

Going into an industry that you don’t have a lot of experience in can seem daunting at first, but the whole point of an apprenticeship is that you’re there to learn as much as possible, so don’t be afraid to get stuck in, ask questions, and throw your ideas into the mix!