As part of the government’s ‘Plan for Jobs’, there are a range of government programmes available for employers, including traineeships.
A traineeship is a skills development programme that includes a work placement. The full programme can last from 6 weeks up to 1 year, though most traineeships last for less than 6 months.
Sood. Marketing
Sood. Marketing is a full 360° digital marketing agency, specialising in website design, Social media management and branding. With a workforce of 7, they work closely with their local Chamber of Commerce, who deliver a range of skills development services.
Sood has seen great success with a previous trainee they had worked with on the traineeship program. Working on a number of internal projects initially, the trainee was able to demonstrate their natural skills and talents, with work steadily progressing in level of responsibility and technical skill. Keen to retain this talent, Paalan Sood, Sood’s managing director progressed the trainee to a Level 3 Digital marketing apprenticeship – their third apprentice in the business.
Despite the challenges of COVID-19, Sood. are continuing to identify opportunities for growth and have a new trainee. This time, the business is eligible to make use of the government incentive for hiring an apprentice, and will use the funding to contribute towards IT procurement and additional digital licenses. The ability to cover some of the recruitment and set up costs has made the decision to commit to employing a new apprentice much easier.
Paalan Sood, Managing Director at Sood. Marketing said:
At Sood, we have found the traineeship model is a great opportunity to identify the strengths and best organisational fit of individuals. Staff have joined the business with a focus on website design, and through being moved to a variety of projects, identified that their skills really spark in areas such as SEO or content production.
Having gone down the traditional university route myself, I have seen first-hand how much benefit is drawn from experiential learning gained from working, with our trainee and now managing his own clients – with remarkable progression in his skills and confidence. Setting up my business and meeting the needs of my customers has been the biggest but most rewarding learning curve and apprentices go through a similar journey.
