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Why UK creative agencies must find room for apprentices

By Steve Price

October 9, 2013 | 9 min read

Interns and internships used to be called work experience. In the same way that a 'Start-up' is the new phrase for 'new business'. It somehow makes it more palatable.

Agencies need to find more room for apprentices

My first 'work experience' was at Attik. They placed me alongside an MA in graphic design student from Lincoln University. For two weeks we pitched against each other, while sat next to each other - nice. At the end their head of HR invited me over to her desk and informed me that I'd been selected for the position. As a, wait for it... runner. I declined. (And Aporva - you never did pay my travel and lunch - thanks!)

Interns are sometimes paid, but often barely or at all. It is only those in the middle and upper classes that can afford to lean on further parental support. Is this the only way? Can this be challenged? Can we learn from the European Journeymen? Can the industry consider internships alongside apprenticeships?

A few years ago I was an investor in an old, former Norwegian fishing wharf building on a remote island in the north Norwegian Arctic Circle. A 14-hour journey consisting of two trains, two planes, a three-hour coach ride and an hour's car journey would get from door-to-door.

It is an extraordinary place and not least because of the small community that finds itself there, literally. Some end up there by accident, others walk over the hill and simply appear from nowhere. On one such occasion a young Swiss-German carpenter apprentice arrived. He was 20 years old and had trekked across Northern Europe and Scandinavia working as he went. He ended up on the same island as us looking for work and he found lots.

He was a Wandergesellen, a 'Journeyman'; a tradition of setting out for several years after completing apprenticeship as a craftsman. A tradition that is still alive and well in German and many French speaking countries, but was unsurprisingly lost in Britain years ago.

In parts of Europe, such as in later medieval Germany, spending time as a journeyman meant moving from one town to another to gain experience of different workshops and skilled craftsmen and women. It became an important part of the training for an aspirant master. Craftsmen in Germany have retained the tradition of travelling journeymen even today, although only a small minority still practice it.

The young, Swiss-German Journeyman who turned up alone, with just his backpack and basic tools was a real talent. Hardworking, humble, mature beyond his years and efficient with his time and skills. I was in awe. Could I have done that at his age? Doubtful, but from his journey came life-skills and experience that no book, no school, no one teacher or mentor can instill.

Arguably these journeymen have a better chance of growing and becoming successful as a result of their experience and exposure to real life, real work and real challenges. This model works for more 'hands-on' craftsmen like carpenters, but what about other industries? We've read recently the awful story where German intern Moritz Erhardt died from a fit. An epileptic fit is suspected of being brought on by the three 20 hours days he'd worked as an intern at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. What about the creative industry?

"In an industry where there's such pressure on delivery and hitting deadlines and margins, it's sometimes hard to find the time that should be dedicated to properly introducing an apprentice and training them in the skills they need. The interns that we take on our regular placement programme are generally already studying in a related field (like advertising or design) so we can integrate them into our projects more easily – because everything isn't completely new for them."

- Anna Morley, DigitasLBi

Anna makes an important point that apprentices are often 'wet behind the ear', inexperienced and without any firm understanding of how to get things done. Absolutely. Trying to fit in to an industry that has no time to wait, to nurse, to mentor, is impossible? This is an issue with the industry, the agency, not the individual's experience. If your teams are stretched that's down to account management and business model structure.

Easy to say because I don't have an advertising empire with tens, hundreds or thousands of people servicing clients' needs and demands. Then again, I've never wanted that, for precisely those reasons. I might not have the same P/L accounts as the big boys but most agencies run at a health-risk pace - fine if that suits you and your business model (not many judging by who I talk to).

I am not suggesting that apprenticeships should replace internships. That is unnecessary. The point is to try and make room for both. Agencies always need new, young, fresh, experienced talent in the form of interns. So why not then assign some of them to help nurture the apprentices. You're obviously not leaning on interns for everything, and they are old enough to know how to help mentor the apprentices, which immediately makes the intern feel responsible and part of the team?

The other issue is competition and saturation:

"In addition, Creative is a very competitive field. We get tons of applications every day and even with the most promising young talent, we get them to do an unpaid two week placement first. If everything works out, we offer them 2-3 month paid internships. Commitment to anything longer than that is very rare. So it hard to justify taking on someone factually less qualified for a longer period of time – it doesn't seem quite fair to the rest of our applicants."

- Anna Morley, DigitasLBi

So there are definite challenges. There is a saturation of talent (and not all of it is good talent); it takes time to find great talent, to enlist it and find out if he/she works in your agency. There is fierce competition for any position, commitment issues from the employers and time - most people haven't got any to provide the ideal nurturing, mentoring environment. DigitasLBi, to their credit, have long since been a beacon for bringing in and supporting new talent via their intern scheme, along with many other agencies; some good, some not so.

It is true that any apprenticeship scheme is going to be a challenge - your agency model has to be more agile and flexible. It has to fit the industry, rather than vice-versa. It is reliant on any agency to provide the required people skills to liaise with and manage the apprentice and their college. All of this is time and money with little or no obvious ROI; aside from the warm feeling you get when you can boast to your mates on the golf course - try explaining that to your accountant.

In September the Tech-City Apprenticeship (TCA) scheme launched, run by the Hackney Community College (HCC) and in collaboration with some of the agencies in London. It's taken a great deal of work by a great team of people at HCC and from various agencies in and around Shoreditch, spearheaded by Tom Hostler and Nick Farnhill at Poke. It will run alongside a carefully orchestrated support team for both apprentice and agency. I'm involved with setting up a mentoring scheme that aims to provide some of that support to further help the apprentices' nurturing. There are more flexible models of time and commitment for both parties and an option to move the apprentices around so as to avoid long-term commitments to just one apprentice.

It's a start, it's not going to be the exact solution. It will adapt and evolve over time to best suit the employers and apprentices. It won't suit or appeal to every agency; it will require some commitment, patience and careful consideration. Most apprentices won't hit the ground running, and it will need at least one point of contact from your agency to manage the apprentices, but assigning internal mentors (and interns) to each apprentice would be recommended to make sure the agency is not loading any one employee with more burden and gives the apprentice a better variation of people to turn to.

I meet lots of graduates, unemployed or working for free and it pains me. If I could do more, offer more, I would. On the other hand this industry is not about handouts. If you are good, good will come out. I was never given anything and in fact I have not stopped working since I was a pot-washer, aged 14. You want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it and if not, well then perhaps that is natural selection.

However it is too easy to say it won't work, can't work. Too busy. Too much existing talent. Too young. Too inexperienced. The apprenticeship route is not a replacement for internships, but an entry level route to that and higher.

Who knows, you may just find, nurture and help rise to fame the next big talents. Or you might just help inspire a throng of young, impressionable, enthusiastic, talented young people to get a better insight in to the industry from the ground up.

Be a stepping stone.

You can find out more information about Tech City Apprenticeships at techcityapprenticeships.com. You may also be interested to follow our coverage of BIMA D-Day, which will see digital professionals from some of the UK's finest agencies visit schools and encourage pupils to think about digital careers on 10 October.

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