Amazing apprenticeships in Digital Marketing

This year in Lloyds Banking Group we celebrate ten years of apprenticeships with many thousands of colleagues having studied and achieved great success through the apprenticeship model.

You may not however know so much about Levy Transfer Apprenticeships, its younger sibling which despite being not even three years old has been helping small and medium sized companies to invest in apprenticeships for themselves, creating new opportunities for jobs and reskilling. ??This scheme allows Lloyds Banking Group to share some of its levy and to date has offered nearly ￡9m in funding to over 350 businesses and 700 apprentices in diverse careers from Accountancy and Tax professionals to UX Designers.

National Apprenticeship Week always gives me a great excuse for catching up with our extended family of apprentices and a real pleasure this time to chat with Lydia German from Tao Digital, based in Bolton and just one of the many businesses supported through levy sharing.

Tao is a proudly Bolton born and bred business.?In 2008 Matt Tomkin started his first business in telecoms, quickly appreciating the work it takes to establish and build and brand online.?Then branching out into an online sportswear brand, where every sale and every interaction existed online, Matt with hours of learning, trial and experimentation built up his expertise in digital marketing and then selling both businesses, ventured further into developing his passion for digital marketing and after a few years of freelancing created Tao Digital, it’s home of course being nowhere other than Bolton itself.

IAN:?So we’re having this conversation in January 2022 with almost two years of the pandemic having passed and this has forced lots of businesses to rethink how they work.?How’s it going for Tao?

LYDIA: Business is really good, during this period of course lots of businesses felt they needed to shift online so this week we’re taking on another apprentice, one has just finished, another is on programme so we’re expanding the team, bringing into lots of young new faces and training them up.?It’s a mad rush, everyone wants to talk about their ambitious plans, all systems go.

IAN:?Digital is such a big area, what’s your area of specialization?

LYDIA:?I specialize in search engine optimisation and this has become really important in lockdown.?One of our clients for example had a sales team of fifty salespeople and they really had to work on their online presence and we have helped there, but also local shops who needed to get noticed as so many people work closer to where they live.??Covid has massively accelerated the shift to digital.

IAN:?And though some businesses have re-opened, this feels like something here to stay?

LYDIA:?Absolutely, so one of our clients The Mousetrap based in Ramsbottom which has got quite trendy as a place, is a case in point.?Google reviews, followers on facebook and social media is encouraging people to venture out to Ramsbottom to find them.??

IAN:?And then to branch out beyond Ramsbottom?

LYDIA: Exactly. ?They are a kind of pub / café famous for their cheese boards so when they couldn’t be open in lockdown they started selling cheeseboards delivering them around the UK and it’s a model they have stuck with for which digital reach is vital.

IAN:?It reminds me that in the Lloyds Business Digital Skills index we can see business usage of digital has leapt forward but you still need specific skills to raise your presence online.?So how do you help businesses such as Mousetrap move forward.

LYDIA:?So we look at the strategy, how well the website works, how different words affect their placing in the google algorithm, or creating a content plan, highlighting the reviews and optimizing their website to get the best placing in the rankings.

IAN:?This sounds like a situation where specialist knowledge really helps.

LYDIA:?Absolutely so if we take another client Hurst Footwear for example, we have lined up some influencers to review the footwear but it’ll sometimes surprise the clients that they may have sent out Skechers but our research might be showing that Doc Martens will get greatest pickup in terms of traffic

IAN:?So how did you acquire your knowledge of all this?

LYDIA: We’re always training and upskilling.?I started as an apprentice, I didn’t go to university and with a lot of our apprentices, they’re learning from their training but also from senior members of the team.?We go to a lot of events to keep up with SEO trends.?It’s a lot about self-teaching and trialing and testing.

IAN:?So the apprenticeship concept of learning and doing is really ingrained in Tao?

LYDIA: Oh gosh absolutely, we have this saying in Tao, the world is changing so fast that if you went to university probably by the end there’d be another ten updates to google that you’d have missed so you have to be constantly learning, even in the past two years I’ve been specializing in SEO

IAN:?How does it feel to be looking after apprentices, having been an apprentice?

LYDIA:?I really look forward to it, I can help them in my area but they’ll learn other people’s areas.?When our apprentice Nathan finished his apprenticeship a few weeks ago, he passed with distinction and that made me really proud because I understand how much hard work goes into getting that distinction grade.?It just goes to show in my opinion that vocational learning is the way to go in this industry.

IAN:?We hear a lot about the war for talent and then I hear people saying come to Greater Manchester because you haven’t seen anything until you’ve been here

LYDIA:?Indeed.?I’ve just been writing today about this because there aren’t enough people with the skills we need, with everything changing so quickly and I think that’s why many companies are leaning towards apprentices because the senior skills aren’t out there, but you need to grow the skills because everyone is short-handed.

IAN:?What are you experiencing right now?

LYDIA:?It’s interesting, we’re seeing lots of applications for apprenticeships from people who are graduates, maybe because SEO is such a broad topic and graduates may have specialized in for example graphic design or coding but in our industry you also need the breadth.

IAN: So as a female in a notoriously male environment of technology, how can the sector excite more women to become more involved?

LYDIA:?I relate to that. ?I went to after school IT club and I left shortly afterwards because I was the only female in the class.?But I’m quite lucky now because with our newest apprentice given we’re in a digital industry, over half of us are female, having Chloe as my leader is inspiring, Chloe was shortlisted in the She Inspires awards and I was shortlisted for Rising Star because we’ve been out back to my school, Bolton College, Bolton University, making them aware of the opportunities for girls.?I just hope that I can be a role model for girls that I didn’t have when I was their age.

IAN: And I wonder whether it’s breaking down what we mean by Digital, breaking things down into the graphics, artistry, maths that is beyond a room full of guys doing coding???Also making these careers accessible for people of all ages?

LYDIA:?I think it’s interesting that we see people with transferable skills move into technology.??Two out of the four we interviewed for our newest apprenticeships are examples in point.?One we interviewed was considering a route in engineering but he discovered his analytical thinking really made him suitable for a technology role.?We’ve also had a candidate with experience in HR payroll and finance and his maths and analytical skills made him highly suitable for this type of work.?From applying their maths skills to using graphic design skills, it’s so much more than just coding.

IAN:?And so it sounds like the future of Tao is fairly well connected with apprenticeships,

LYDIA: Absolutely.

Pictured: Team Tao (Lydia third from left) pictured early 2021, the team has now doubled in size

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