How Content Creator Apprentice Transformed New Meaning Training’s Marketing Strategy

Hear from New Meaning Training’s Marketing Manager, Suzie Young, and her recently passed Apprentice Content Creator, Courtney Fox 👇🏻 

“I will be singing the praises of Baltic! From the initial recruitment process and throughout the apprenticeship journey, I can’t fault any part of the support that I’ve received from the Baltic Team!”

Tell Us about New Meaning Training 

New Meaning Training offers a unique approach to education for young people who struggle with traditional schooling, providing courses in Beauty, Motor Mechanics, Creative Design and much more. 

By focusing on individual needs and barriers to learning, we help students discover their potential and regain a sense of hope. Our centres are located throughout the UK, providing personalised support and guidance to help students succeed. 

What motivated you to incorporate apprenticeships into your recruitment strategy? 

Hiring an apprentice was driven by myself as I needed the extra support in the marketing team. This has proven that the concept really works as a recruitment strategy.  

At New Meaning, our values centre around believing in young people and giving them a chance through education, so the apprenticeship route has been an absolute success for us. 

What were your primary goals and objectives for the apprenticeship programme? 

The primary goal to create capacity in the marketing department. At the time, I was running the marketing efforts myself. We needed someone to join the team and focus solely on content creation, but we didn’t have the budget to appoint somebody with a proven track record and experience. 

After hiring Courtney and seeing the impact she has had on the business, we have seen a clear return on investment which has led to her being promoted!  

What benefits have you observed from hiring an apprentice? 

As Courtney is actively being trained whilst working for New Meaning Training, she is applying her knowledge immediately into her day-to-day role. For us, that is worth its weight in gold as she is learning how to use new and evolving tools and technologies. 

As an example, Courtney and I now use Artificial Intelligence. If we had recruited somebody who hadn’t yet adopted AI, they’d need to be learning that skill. In the current climate, you need to be able to use AI and so it’s handy to have somebody who’s actively learning and applying that learning in the workplace.   

How did Courtney’s skills and knowledge develop throughout the Content Creator programme? 

Courtney has transformed as a person, and she now has a real sense of her own ability and has developed a lot of confidence. At the beginning of her apprenticeship journey, she was reluctant to contribute to meetings and communicate with other people across the business, but this has changed a lot! Courtney is proactive with picking up tasks before she or other team members come to me.  

She is exploring new tools such as CapCut to generate content and has discovered other tools through her apprenticeship to add to our roster. Courtney will go far as she is willing to embrace new technology and be innovative with her approach to content creation. 

How has Courtney contributed to the New Meaning Training’s productivity and output?  

My skill set as Marketing Manager is generalist as opposed to specialist. Courtney has come into the business and instantly began reviewing our social media analytics to understand what content is performing well, and which is providing little value. She has also began generating reports using Hootsuite and website analytics. 

Has Courtney brought any new ideas and perspectives to the company? 

Courtney has been experimenting with TikTok and is currently making a business case for a company account. There was some resistance from management level, so she has tried to prove the concept works through her personal channel. 

Now, we are almost ready to launch TikTok and Courney has already created a content plan. She has been getting over 100,000 views on some of her personal posts, so she is quickly becoming our resident expert. 

How has your experience been working with us? 

The level of contact that I’ve had with Baltic has been at the right level, not too much and not too little. Baltic is a professional, well organised company with knowledgeable, trained staff at every point of contact, particularly within the coaching department!  

The systems and procedures in place effectively support both learners and employers. I feel very at ease with working using Baltic as our training partner.