It’s day two of National Apprenticeship Week and we want to celebrate all the amazing work our apprentices do every day.
Each day this week, we will share their experience and what they’ve been up to. Tuesday is all about Kate, Digital Apprentice at AO and her experience so far.
What is your role at AO?
My job involves reporting, analytics and creating insights for the brand department. As part of my role on the social team I track metrics across our social channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest and create reports to send out to key stakeholders. On the search engine optimisation (SEO) team I have been responsible for conducting Keyword analysis’s across our three territories, this involves looking at what people are searching for and how we could be optimising our site to rank highly in the search engines like Google.
What drew you to AO originally? How did you end up as an apprentice at AO?
I originally applied for an apprenticeship through a provider called Arch as I knew they worked with great employers and had a 5 star Ofsted rating. Arch then got in touch with me suggesting I apply for a role with AO, I read the job description for brand apprentice and it sounded like the perfect fit for me, I then did some research on AO and fell in love with the culture and the values and I knew I had to work here!
What is the favourite part about working for AO?
My favourite part about working for AO is the people, being surrounded by passionate individuals who work hard and know how to have a good time doing it is great. All my team are very supportive and are forever encouraging learning and development which is a nice change from my previous employment.
Did you always want to do an apprenticeship?
My plan had always been go to boarding school for A Levels and then university however that changed once I realised I didn’ know what I would want to study at a degree level and that I was not gaining enough practical knowledge being at sixth form, so I decided I wanted to get an apprenticeship instead.
What’s your proudest/funniest moment at AO so far?
One responsibility that I have is to send out a weekly email entitled “Competitor round up” to the Brand and Trade departments to inform and inspire them with updates on our competitor’s activity across social and any inspirational campaigns or content I come across that is relevant to. I enjoy doing this as I am always getting positive feedback and I always enjoy hearing people discussing the content that I have shared with them.
What’s been your biggest challenge during your time at AO?
Time management has been my biggest challenge because before AO I was working part time while looking after my younger brother but once I took on this role I was suddenly moving into a new home, taking on a new job, completing a qualification while taking part in Duke of Edinburgh. However despite the step up in pace I have loved every second of it as I am doing something I have a passion for.
What made you realise this is what you wanted to do?
I originally wanted a role in IT and started looking for an apprenticeship in this field however I realised it was a little too technically focused and so I started looking for a digital marketing apprenticeship instead. I chose digital marketing because it has that level of technicality to it while having a slight creative side and social media plays such a large part in our lives these days I wanted to know more about it.
What are your hopes/plans for the future?
As I am currently completing a level 3 digital marketing qualification I hope to continue on here at AO to complete a degree level 5 qualification in digital marketing.
What skills have you gained on the job here at AO?
AO has helped me develop a lot of different skills and expand my knowledge into sectors I didn’ think I would get into for example I started off solely working on social reporting whereas now I am working on SEO analysis which I did not see myself doing before. I came into AO thinking I wanted a more creatively driven role however since coming on I have realise that I enjoy crating analytics and insights.