A whole month has passed since I sat down and wrote a blog on my apprenticeship; it?s amazing how time flies. I have been with Appletree for 3 months now and so I have my 3 month review today ? wish me luck.

So what have I been doing since we last spoke a month ago? I?ve been very busy ? to say the least. Most of my efforts have been working on a business exhibition, Experience Business, that my company is helping to organise. Experience Business has been a fantastic project to work on and I look forward to seeing how the exhibition turns out in October. I have been working very closely with our web developer to get the site up and running – www.experiencebusiness.co.uk. I have previously worked with a few web developers so I had a very basic understanding of creating a website. After spending a few hours with Matt ? our web developer ? I picked up so much and learnt some fantastic skills when creating a website. It was a learning experience that  I truly value as I know I will be using these skills in the not too distant future. Overall I have been helping with the organisation process and I must say it does feel good that I can hold my own and create new innovating ideas that the rest of the group love.

Social media, let?s talk. Who doesn?t use a form of social media? Over the last month I have been spending a lot of time learning how to use social media from a business perspective. I like to think that after a month I now have an  ?advanced knowledge? in social media. I think because of my age, I grew up with social media and therefore a lot of it is almost second nature to me, so I picked up how to use it in a business element very quickly.  I am managing the social media for a few clients here at Appletree . I have started from scratch with a few of the clients and I must say their social media is looking good. If you would like some information on social media you can read my blog on Using Social Media in your Online Marketing Plan.

I start going to college in September and I shall be learning about marketing theory and attending every Wednesday evening. I am actually looking forward to this as I feel that I am keeping up with my apprenticeship and doing very well in the work place, however it will be good to learn the theory behind the practical side of marketing. The only downside is that due to education rules I have to go to college to do ?functional skills? ? called key skills when I was at college a few years ago. I have to do functional skills in English and ICT, due to my qualifications being out of date, and I have to attend the classes. Apparently GCSEs only last 5 years. When I found out I had to do functional skills I was more than frustrated with this as I have to prove that I am competent in ICT, when I spend 90% of my working day on a PC. It?s almost a bad a joke ? I can help develop a website, I can use specialist programs to edit photo and video, but I have to prove I can change a font in Microsoft office.

It has been one busy month and very difficult in some areas, but I am still as eager and determined as I was from day one. I really feel like I have been fitting into the company this past month. I really enjoy who I work with and I feel I am hardly treated as apprentice (which I love). It been good to settle in. Recently my boss came back from her holiday and I made a suggestion that we have monthly innovations meetings to see how we can improve the company. The idea went down brilliantly and we are having our first meeting this afternoon. Not bad for a newbie, eh?