Trade Marketing Apprentice Review

In my role i work with the brands which we sell to gain marketing investment used to drive branded and AO campaigns, a lot of this money goes towards the bottomline and is crucial for the business. I present proposals to the manufacturers and complete campaigns. i work on MDA and SDA categories which has helped to give me a wider view of the business and how the different categories work.

I have developed a lot of skills and gained new ones since working at AO. This includes increasing my confidence and gaining vital presenting skills, I can now pull a full campaign plan together for manufacturers dependent on the level of investment and work well with different people around the business, who help me to complete my campaigns.

I enjoy the programme a lot, as part of the apprenticeship we also completed our Gold Duke of Edinburgh award which was a massive opportunity and was great to build relationships with the other apprentices. The apprentice advisors internally are great and provide day to day support if required meaning that if you have any worries there is always someone to go to for help.

The programme is organised within AO however in regards to the qualifications as these are all different for the apprentices to suit the departments we work in, it can be quite difficult to ensure the timings for everyones apprenticeships are similar. But this is now being ironed out as the government changed the apprenticeships over the time period in which i started my apprenticeship meaning it was hard to organise how everything was going to work when there were no courses to originally get signed onto,

I receive a lot of support from my employer, i have weekly catch ups with my manager to ensure that my workload is ok and that i'm making constant progress. I also have monthly meetings with my apprentice advisor to dicuss any concerns i may have and a general catch up.

Our new training provider for our level 4 qualification is great at providing support as we have a monthly catch up with our assessor to ensure we are completing work towards our qualification. Also monthly tutor sessions are held to deliver the apprenticeship and tutor calls are set up too.

I think that my qualification helps me to perform better in my role as its all of the theory which i can then apply in my day to day role. They ensure that the discussions and work focused on within the sessions are suited to our job roles and can be used within our day to day work helping to further enrich the business.

At AO there are lots of extra-curricular activities to get involved in, this includes a football team, as badminton team, regular walks are held on weekends during the summer months and guest speakers visit to help enrich everyones knowledge and awareness of key topics in the work place e.g. women in the workplace.

Yes

I think it is a great place to work with a very friendly and relaxed culture in which everyone feels very included. The office is a very lively and chilled place allowing everyone to do there work with an element of fun and events are regularly held internally to bring teams together.

i'd recommend that you just be yourself - if you're fun and bubbly AO is the place for you. They may ask some wacky questions in the interviews so be open to answer anything but the interview process isn't formal at all as they ensure you feel comfortable and don't want to put pressure on you throughout the process.