The experience of our 2024 HubGem Apprentices

Let's begin by introducing our Apprentices, Danny and Katie, and shedding light on their roles here at HubGem.

Katie, our Apprentice Marketing & CRM Executive, started her apprenticeship journey with HubGem in August 2022. Her main role is to work closely with our Marketing Executive, Amy, to create engaging marketing content.

Danny is HubGems' Apprentice Business Development Executive. She started in June 2023, to generate leads and provide admin support for the Business Development team through administrative support, and she also supports the wider team when required.

So let's dive into what an Apprenticeship is, and what being a HubGem Apprentice is like for Danny and Katie...

Overview

Apprenticeships are a chance to gain hands-on experience in a job role whilst learning and gaining a qualification at the same time. The Apprenticeships include both on and off-the-job training, providing evidence of what we do at work . Once complete, we have an end-point assessment which showcases everything we have learnt during our journey as an apprentice.

Our Apprenticeships include 4 days working at HubGem and 1 day per week doing 'off the job' hours. Katie is working towards her level 3 Digital Marketing qualification and Danny is working towards her level 3 Business Administration qualification.

Katie's Digital Marketing Apprenticeship

Training

A significant part of Apprenticeship learning is on and off-the-job training, as this is a requirement of the apprenticeship. My off-the-job training was one day per week at Lincoln College, learning more about digital marketing and completing exams required for the course. The 3 exams required for the Digital Marketing course are: Digital Marketing Business Principles, Marketing Principles, and HTML & CSS. Since passing these exams, I now spend my off-the-job hours providing and compiling evidence of all the digital marketing work I do at HubGem.

During my Apprenticeship at HubGem, I have done a lot of on-the-job training too. I have completed HubSpot Academy courses in addition to more general digital marketing training provided by HubGem- I have gained 9 HubSpot Academy certifications so far! I also have a monthly training plan to ensure that my college and work training are both aligned.

One aspect of my on-the-job training has included joining client calls to gain customer service experience and receiving 1-1 onboarding by one of our Marketing & CRM Consultants. This has provided me with more knowledge about HubSpot and the marketing tools, which are essential for my everyday work.

Being an Apprentice at HubGem

Since starting at HubGem, I have been supported by my manager, Kayleigh who has helped me align my college requirements with my work role. When I first started at HubGem I learned the basics of how to use HubSpot and supported our Marketing Executive with social posts, blog articles, newsletters, emails, and some event campaigns. Since then, I have taken on sole responsibility for social posts, our internal newsletter, and our monthly client newsletters, learning so much along the way! I have also started helping with preparations for events, keeping our website up to date, and created new printed marketing materials.

I have weekly check-ins with our Marketing Executive, Amy, and my manager, Kayleigh, to check in on work projects, and give updates and ideas on our marketing. They also offer their support when needed. I also participate in weekly marketing and sales calls where we discuss how both teams can help each other and better align our processes.

Another one of my tasks is blog writing and I have now written 11 articles for our website, including this one that I'm co-writing with Danny! These blogs have been about various topics- HubSpot, events, our team days, awards we've received, and even one about Marketing Principles which I was learning about at college. This is a great part of my apprenticeship as it helps me to improve my HubSpot and general digital marketing knowledge!

As this is my first time working in a fully remote team, it's been very easy to stay connected to everyone via Slack and team calls, and there's always been help available.

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience as an Apprentice Marketing and CRM Executive at HubGem; I look forward to the rest of my apprenticeship and continuing to develop my knowledge and skills!

Danny's Business Admin Apprenticeship

My day-to-day responsibilities at HubGem encompass a range of different activities. Like Katie, I work very closely with my line manager, Sophie. We meet up (virtually) multiple times a week to discuss plans at HubGem, set weekly tasks and of course, have a little natter! Starting HubGem is my first intro to the business sector, so the vast majority of responsibilities and operations, I had to learn from scratch. Luckily, the whole team, and specifically Sophie have been more than happy to help. This far, my main responsibilities include; monitoring data hygiene on our CRM, creating templates and engaging new prospects, various administration and research projects, and my absolute favourite, writing wellbeing blogs! (Which you should go and read). As I progress, I hope to eventually take on further administrative responsibilities and help support the wider team more as well as the sales team.

Just like Katie, HubGem has been my first taste of Hybrid working. I spend 4 days working from home and come into the office every Tuesday to charge my social battery. As well as weekly catch-ups with our managers as Katie mentioned, we also have a larger monthly 1-2-1 with our respective managers, where our progression at HubGem is mapped out. I think one of my favourite aspects of HubGem that I've found is that our progression within the company is very much our own. I expressed an interest in the HR department of HubGem, and I was offered the opportunity to shadow Kayleigh, the HR and Culture Manager, and assist in different internal initiatives.

So far at HubGem, I've written two blogs as part of our culture series; "Crystals For the Work Place" and "How To Find Zen Working from Home", with many many more wellness-centred blogs in the pipeline. My overall experience at HubGem so far has been filled with so much learning, so many good times and I'm sure so many more to come!

At HubGem, we're not just apprentices, but valued, individual members of the team and it truly shows!

If you'd like to learn more about our culture at HubGem, click here.