This week is National Apprenticeship Week, which aims to highlight all the amazing work being done by employers and apprentices across the country. This week, we wanted to take the opportunity to shine a light on our apprentices and all the great work they do for us.

So, each day we thought we’d #AskAnApprentice to tell us a little bit about themselves. Discuss their role and their time at Castle, and why they chose to do an apprenticeship, so you can get to know our apprentices in their own words!

Today we are meeting our Castle apprentices from the email marketing, web development and SEO teams.

Castle’s Email and Web Admin and SEO Apprentices

Nathan Goldston – Email Assistant

I am an adventurous person who loves to travel. Some of the places I have travelled to include Dubai, Las Vegas, Cape Verdi, and Australia. If I were to choose either a city or a beach holiday, I would choose a city break without thinking twice. I love to learn about new cultures and see the history of the country. The most emotional tour I’ve been on was to the 9/11 memorial. Just to see the whole story unravel and learn about peoples personal experience was fascinating. My favourite moment was either a parasailing experience in the Dominican Republic or going to the top of the tallest building in the world. I also experienced a serious heat stroke, but I will not go into that.

My hobbies are football, playing video games, designing ideas and game night with the family (because I always win). I support Liverpool FC and I hold a season ticket; I go to every home game. I have been going to the match for 4 years now and I have never missed a kick-off. When playing football, I am awful with my feet, so I act like spider-man in goal and I am really good at it.

Why I chose an apprenticeship at Castle

I looked for an apprenticeship in my area once I finished my A levels because I want to make a difference. And I would not feel satisfied working in a café or supermarket. A good apprenticeship, in my opinion, helps you get past that barrier of being a regular worker to show the world what you have to offer. I am over the moon that Castle chose me in their recruitment. It means so much to me and my family in these tough times.

My job is all about designing and sending emails. I like to think I have a creative mind and always look outside the box. I love making my clients happy with the effort and work I have done for them.

What my favourite thing about being a Castle apprentice is

It is hard to choose my favourite part about Castle. But being part of a team that feels like a family really helps me grow as a person. I understand how much these people put into their work, so I love to make them laugh and take a step back when I send them over our Castle newsletter. This contains memes that seem to have all focused on Dean up to now (sorry Dean).

I am looking forward to seeing where this agency will go. And I hope to be a part of it for years to come.

 

Lauren Henderson – SEO and Web Admin Assistant

Hello, my name is Lauren Henderson. I am an SEO and Web Admin Assistant at Castle. When I am not at work, I really enjoy playing the bass guitar, drawing, painting and playing video games. But I also love taking any opportunity that passes my way to learn something new about the industry I work in. Before my apprenticeship, I wrote a Master’s dissertation on the relationship between commercialisation and counterculture. So, this topic, in particular, really interests me. I’m always looking for non-mainstream branding or marketing techniques to research in my own time!

Why I chose to be a Castle apprentice

I chose to do an apprenticeship after four years at university, as although I had a lot of academic experience in marketing, I was yet to take on a more practical role. I felt as though I had a lot to learn about office environments, working with clients and how to apply what I had learnt in the classroom to real-life scenarios. During my time at Castle, I have gotten better and better at communicating with both clients and my colleagues. As well as applying marketing theory to every task I do. I have developed many new skills regarding Content Management Systems like WordPress and e-commerce platforms like Shopify. And I have even begun to learn basic HTML and CSS language without any prior background in coding!

What I enjoy most about being a Castle apprentice

The thing I enjoy most about working at Castle is the diversity of my role. No workday is the same. What I have come to love about marketing is that every situation requires its own unique solution. Sometimes demanding you to think outside the box and try something new. In the future, I hope to learn more about coding and web development as well as how I can use search engine optimisation to better websites’ visibility and relevance to consumers.