Featured Apprentice Story

Phoebe is now in 3rd year of her 4 year Digital Marketing Degree Apprentice (BSc Hons) with Anglia Ruskin University. Phoebe’s title at Softwerx is Outreach and Events coordinator but her role extends beyond that to also cover our website and social media amongst other things. Our outreach involves connecting to potential prospects in the private equity sector to raise awareness about our work in that area. Our flagship event that she runs is our regular online Microsoft Security TechTalk event that is very popular which gains over 100 signups. She is also involved in running other events including in-person, partner webinars, etc. Phoebe maintains our website on a day-to-day basis and also manages our social media presence. She has been at the company for less than 2.5 years. Softwerx is a small cybersecurity specialist who run a 24x7 Cambridge-based Microsoft Security Operations Centre and so digital marketing requires technical skills and is core to our business development.

EVENTS

Phoebe’s key role promoting our events has driven our lead generation in marketing and has taken it to a whole new level. We’ve had over 669 signups for our events of new leads excluding existing customers since Phoebe has been coordinating, and this is a phenomenal effort. To put this in context, a large competitor was running almost 300 events over the course of a year globally and from that gained only 2500 signups, so we are getting a far higher signup rate for our events compared to our competitors thanks to her innovations in promoting the events using an omnichannel strategy that goes across social media, email, paid ads, video and partner channels. Given that the event topics are complex cybersecurity Business-to-Business ones, this is especially significant. To achieve this Phoebe has had to master our Dynamics CRM email and events portal which industry marketing veterans describe as ‘a beast’ due to its complexity. The events have garnered great feedback with an average rating of 4.6 out of 5. The events are so effective and generating new business that the direct benefit of new sales has helped propel us this year into 40% growth up from 20% prior to her joining. As a result of this, Phoebe was promoted after only a year in the job to ‘Outreach and Events Coordinator’. In this position she now coordinates a team of three working for her to pull the events together so is effectively in a project management position.

WEBSITE

Phoebe’s manages our entire website and her website work has gained some great feedback with one partner communications executive commenting, “I notice you guys have a super website – it would be great to hear about how yours is managed.” Phoebe has been integral in helping to gain an increase in website visitors -doubling between 2020 and 2021. Phoebe has also worked with a consultant to develop our own set of website guidelines that provide a framework for maintaining the Wordpress site with best practice, security considerations, backups and SEO optimisation. Phoebe’s even brought a first-year apprentice in under her to help her manage the website and has trained him up in doing website administration and updates which has sped up our processes and enhanced our capabilities. She has worked with an external consultant to make this all possible but now rarely needs to calls on the consultant after having regular training 1-2-1’s.

ACADEMICS

Academically, Phoebe is in her third year in a BSc(hons) Digital Marketing with Anglia Ruskin University. She is scoring A’s and B’s across almost all her modules so far.

MENTORSHIP

Phoebe has also been training new members of the marketing team who are junior degree apprenticeships especially with her skills around email management on our marketing tool as well as event coordination. This is developing her own management and leadership skills and it's wowed me as her manager to see how diligent and patient and willing she is to help others grow. Phoebe has already started to mentor and support a new 1st year Degree Apprentice called Paul. She is helping him with one-to-one and group support in how to navigate the world of distance learning, essay writing and study skills. For example, this week Phoebe is running a workshop on essay writing for the whole marketing team using the PQAL technique. Phoebe will also sit on Paul's Tripartite termly meetings with Paul's academic supervisor to support his development.

APPRENTICE AMBASSADOR

Some of the most exciting area of Phoebe’s work though, is around championing degree apprenticeships locally and beyond. For this she has gone above and beyond to volunteer her time and take bold steps in public speaking, video presentation content, and additional training. Public speaking is known to be the most intimidating task in people’s professional careers, and Phoebe’s courage in speaking in front of entire school/college groups is evident in that her voice started shaking at one point during a school presentation, but she kept it under control and is gaining confidence with each new presentation she does. Phoebe has done five school and college presentations to date so far since joining. Some of the most recent feedback was from the coordinator from Anglia Ruskin University who invited her and a fellow degree apprentice to speak at their conference where the organiser said, “Hi Faith and Phoebe, Thank you for attending and speaking at the CAP conference today. Your time is very much appreciated. I heard you got some great questions, and you delivered your answers and experience with great finesse and professionalism. Many thanks again, Alice.” At another presentation at Trumpington Community College Phoebe got more positive feedback:

“Dear Patrick and Phoebe, We really appreciate you both volunteering to speak about Apprenticeships to the students at Trumpington Community College. The feedback from the presentation supports how I feel the event went on the day in that the students overall score of 3.81 out of 5 stars is very positive. Kind regards, Jennifer”

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Because Phoebe has been so active in this area, we’ve developed a portfolio to showcase some of her activities since there is too much to fit it. You can access the portfolio as a Google Doc here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qK8twM6yC_2opOWFVgy_fHh_q9OgsR5f/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104020035285164382017&rtpof=true&sd=true The portfolio details the types of activities, dates and includes the impact and feedback from the activities where possible. For example, Phoebe has recently completed her Early Careers Ambassador raining via our partners Form the Future based in Cambridge. Form the Future support aspiring apprentices get the skills they need to land apprenticeships by connecting apprenticeship providers with schools. David Brockway, Relationships Manager at Form the Future had this to say, “Phoebe has a really good understanding of why her sector matters and why she wants to be an ambassador for it, which, combined with her excellent communication skills will make her a valuable member of our volunteer community and an excellent role model to young people in the region.” See https://www.linkedin.com/posts/david-brockway-11a39348_a-big-well-done-to-form-the-future-cics-activity-6933069032342364160-kBlx?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop . Here's the badge that she earned as a result of the training https://www.credly.com/badges/cec79dc0-51d5-413f-aed2-6c3126586372?source=linked_in_profile

I asked Phoebe what the Completing the early careers ambassador has meant for her and she said this: “Completing the early careers ambassador programme has been great training to delve deeper into my communication skills. Being exposed to it everyday in my work and personal life, the training has been useful to properly think about the words and tone used specifically for a student audience as it can be easy to slip into work jargon. Active listening has been a great tool to learn more about as the opportunity to mentor and teach students about this career path is one thing, but listening to their views and questions is what can really inspire, as this ensures they get the correct information they need and understand.

Now completing this course, I plan to volunteer in the varied activities I have been trained on that Form The Future run at schools. This includes mock interviews, 'what’s my line' and carousel.” Phoebe also produced this short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbjvMIZhjgg to help inform and inspire upcoming apprentices and the video has ‘gone viral’ in the sense that Form the Future regularly show it when they are presenting at schools in Phoebe’s absence. Indeed, Phoebe’s ambassador activism has boosted our own apprenticeship programme,. Our own first year degree apprentice Paul applied to us at Softwerx because he saw Phoebe’s video about apprenticeship tips online!

I also asked Phoebe about her apprenticeship ambassador-related plans for 2023. Here’s what she said, "I see myself continuing with in-person school talks and participating in the other activities mentioned – mock interviews etc. Possible opportunities to mentor students and offer support with an apprentice career path are something I can see myself being involved in also. Other than this, I have launched an Instagram page called ‘Aspiring Apprentices’, https://www.instagram.com/aspiringapprentices/ designed to reach aspiring apprentices, to share tips and an opportunity to learn more about what apprenticeships have to offer from my experience. I’ve got 48 followers already and am aiming to grow this to 200 followers, eventually with a blogs, tips and other content showing my experience as an apprentice to raise awareness and inspire people who are just starting on the journey. I’m also looking into becoming a ‘Not Going To Uni’ Ambassador to help reach more people at https://www.notgoingtouni.co.uk/content/ambassadors."

I have been joking with Phoebe that at this rate she’ll soon be booked up with Apprenticeship speaking engagements across the country months in advance because she is so good at it and has already inspired so many people. Although it’s a joke, it might turn into reality!

AWARD FOR AWS RE-INVENT

Phoebe has also recently been awarded an AWS Builder’s Grant for an all-expenses paid trip to the the AWS re:Invent Conference at the end of November in Las Vegas – see https://reinvent.awsevents.com/community/all-builders-welcome/. This was awarded in recognition of her volunteering work, her work in the cloud technology and digital marketing field, and also her and career aspiration. Here's a bit more information about the AWS Builders’ grant: it is dedicated to building the next generation of technical leaders. One way they support a future of tech that is diverse, inclusive, and accessible is through the All Builders Welcome Grant. Geared toward underrepresented technologists in the first five years of their career, the All Builders Welcome Grant removes the financial barrier to attending re:Invent and provides immersive opportunities to learn, network, and build. The All Builders Welcome Grant includes registration for re:Invent 2022; airfare to Las Vegas, Nevada; and hotel accommodations for the duration of the conference. Participants will have access to four days of re:Invent content and activities as well as a welcome orientation, reserved seating in the keynotes, meetups, closing remarks with AWS leadership, and much more!

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

I asked Phoebe what professional achievement she is most proud of? She said, “My proudest professional and personal achievement is going to local schools and sharing my passion for working as a degree apprentice in the cyber security industry. I didn't have the opportunity to learn about degree apprenticeships in school as the university route is heavily pushed on students so discovered it through my own research. Also, many students can be put off by the stigma of how highly technical cyber security is. However, it can be forgotten that there are other roles necessary for these organisations such as working in sales, finance and marketing. I am proud to be an advocate to ensure students don't shut off this opportunity. I grew up very shy and the fact working in my role now is giving me the confidence to speak to a room full of people about what I'm passionate about is something I am impressed I can now do. Forcing myself to get out of my comfort zone is terrifying every single time but I feel such a sense of achievement when it's done.”

CAREER ASPIRATIONS

I asked Phoebe what her career plans and professional goals were? She replied, “Since working at Softwerx, my interest has grown in the cyber security industry and I am passionate about developing myself more in this industry as a marketer. Working across all activities in marketing, my role is shifting towards events since producing online webinars across coronavirus and now looking at in-person events. As a child of the digital age, the evolution of technology has been fascinating to witness. I am driven to keep up with the changing market dynamics and technology innovations. Now entering the world of work as a degree apprentice in the cyber security industry, working at Softwerx as an apprentice provides an amazing opportunity to learn directly from industry leaders.”

I asked Phoebe what her technology experience was and what her near-term aspirations were? She replied, “Before my apprenticeship, I completed a free online course Google offered called the Fundamentals of digital marketing. I was looking to further my knowledge and get ahead of the curve in preparation for the role. Since working for my company, I have also completed an IDM Certificate in Digital and Data-Driven Marketing. Specific technical experience is working directly on my company's website, learning HTML through experience and utilising WordPress. I aspire to be fluent in HTML as I value its importance and accessibility and I can then go on to learn more advanced coding in the future. The other main technical experience I have in my role is the use of the Customer Relationships Management System (CRM). This advanced piece of software covers all aspects of marketing, I have created customer journeys, online events, email campaigns, and online forms for our website to collect contacts. Although a marketer, I aspire to advance my knowledge in cyber security also.”

TEAMWORK

Phoebe is one of the most personable, bubbly people I've met despite some shyness. She has phenomenal interpersonal skills and is a natural team leader. Her excellent teamwork skills were already recognised with her gaining a ‘Highly commended’ award in the Teamwork category of the 2022 Apprenticeship Awards run by Cambridgeshire County Council.

SUMMARY

Considering that as a small local business, we have no formal or pre-exisiting apprenticeship training support or scheme for career development in the company makes these achievements all the more remarkable. All in all, Phoebe is a phenomenal young person to work with and a real trailblazing apprentice. She’s blowing off the doors, is a phenomenal spokesperson and takes initiative at every opportunity. We hope she continues to get the recognition she deserves and we can’t wait to see how her career unfolds.