I’m Salka, a Marketing Executive at Mindful Education and alumni of Weston College, and below is my career journey so far!

My Career Journey so Far

Since completing my Level 3 Marketing apprenticeship through Weston College and Mindful Education, my career journey has gone from strength to strength. Upon completing my studies and achieving a distinction, I was offered a permanent role at Mindful Education, where I have now been working for three and a half years.

Since then, I have continued to develop both personally and professionally. The range of responsibilities I deal with has increased exponentially, meaning my skill set is more varied and allows me to take on any task with confidence. I have also since completed a Level 4 Marketing Executive apprenticeship, which enabled me to progress from Marketing Assistant to Marketing Executive.

What I Gained from Being an Apprentice

I think the confidence I have gained through my apprenticeships has been one of the biggest benefits. I have become more comfortable stepping outside of my comfort zone, taking on new challenges and trusting my own ideas and abilities.

My apprenticeship also gave me valuable practical experience of working in a professional marketing environment. I developed skills in communication, organisation, teamwork and time management, while learning how to manage real responsibilities and deadlines.

These experiences have had a big impact on my career because they have given me a strong foundation to continue developing and progressing within marketing.

Roles and Responsibilities of my Apprenticeships

The Level 4 apprenticeship was definitely a step up and helped to embed the knowledge that I had gained in my Level 3 apprenticeship. It also added another layer of depth and complexity to some of the theories and frameworks that I studied, which gave me a healthy challenge.

Similarly to Level 3, I had a project for my End-Point Assessment (EPA), so I had another valuable opportunity to plan and deliver a large project on my own.

I also had more opportunities to interact with my fellow cohorts and have teamworking experiences with other apprentices. This allowed me to build my team skills and understand a lot of the content more easily, as I had a sounding board to bounce ideas off and could share my ideas and work through tough topics together as a team.

My role at Mindful Education has developed as the scope and variety of tasks I handle has increased, and I feel that I am now responsible for much more within the team.

Some of my responsibilities include writing and posting social media posts, blogs and creating email campaigns to go out to our key audiences. I’ve also become involved in more internal and external events, helping with the planning and delivery of them by liaising with event organisers, couriers and other members of the team.

Challenges Along the Way

One of the main challenges during my Level 4 apprenticeship was balancing work and studies and meeting the requirements of both commitments. Often, I would find myself having to meet work deadlines, apprenticeship deadlines and stay on top of all my responsibilities.

To overcome this, I would use my study days to list my main responsibilities and get through as much as I could. For any tasks left over, I would section out my time after work, spending at least an hour after work throughout the week to complete them and ensure I met my deadlines.

I also found myself studying the material and seeing that it was a lot to take in, so I would make myself summary documents that sectioned off each of the key topics into bullet points. This allowed me to memorise and absorb information more effectively.

Biggest Achievements

The achievements I am most proud of are getting distinctions for each of my apprenticeships. Each apprenticeship I completed was over a year in duration, so a lot of time, hard work and effort had been poured into my studies, not to mention preparing for the EPA and doing it twice.

I am also very proud of making it to the Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards in 2024 and being Highly Commended under the Creative, Media & Marketing category. This marked a significant moment in my career and was recognition of all my hard work over the last year and a half.

Advice to Future Apprentices

One piece of advice I would give to aspiring apprentices is to not be shy about asking questions. Don’t feel out of place just because you don’t know everything. At the end of the day, it’s a learning experience and the organisation that has hired you is well aware of the requirements and responsibilities of recruiting an apprentice.

You’re not supposed to know everything; the whole point of an apprenticeship is to learn on the job! So don’t be scared about doing an apprenticeship just because it’s something out of your comfort zone. It may seem daunting, but it is incredibly rewarding.

Future Steps

Now that I’ve completed both apprenticeships, I want to continue working in my role as a Marketing Executive and would like to do so for the future. I want to develop myself in this new role and take more leadership in various projects.

In the future, I can see myself taking on a senior marketing role and eventually also managing and guiding an apprentice. I can also see myself doing a Level 6 apprenticeship and progressing myself further in my career.