Name: Jasmin Cruickshank
Age: 19
Organisation & Description: Prospects. Prospects transforms lives and communities through our innovation and expertise in employment, skills, care and education.
Date Started the PR Apprenticeship: 3 January, 2017
What were you doing before your apprenticeship? Before my apprenticeship I had left college with a distinction in media but knew it wasn’t the right route for me, I continued to work as a keyholder in a clothes shop but always felt I could achieve more so I started looking for apprenticeships.
What attracted you to the PR Apprenticeship? I was attracted to the apprenticeship as I have always had a passion for writing and from a young age my dream was to become an author. The apprenticeship would give me all the skills I needed to pursue my dream as a hobby on the side. It allowed me to gain vital work place experience as well as getting a qualification and being paid for the hard work I was doing.
What was the highlight of your PR Apprenticeship?
The highlight of my apprenticeship would definitely be building my confidence. Thanks to my apprenticeship and Prospects I have accomplished so much, I can now travel to London and other areas of the country on my own without feeling anxious, my mental state has improved massively.
What do you feel your apprenticeship helped you achieve?
My apprenticeship has helped me to achieve many things, including allowing me to get my foot in the communications world. I’m now a full time PR Executive in a fantastic team. Every day is different and I love my job. It’s enabled me to develop my personal skills as well as career skills, I have learnt so much about the industry but also myself throughout the entire process.
Top 3 skills a PR Apprentice needs:
- Creativity
- Confidence
- Relationship building
I love PR because…
I learn something new every day, every day is different and never boring! The job can be stressful at times but it’s worth all the hard work in the end. Being able to share Prospects customer stories and show how the company has changed the lives is a great feeling. It’s a lovely feeling to get feedback from people, thanking you for everything you did to support their story.
What are your next steps?
My next steps are to continue at Prospects as a PR Executive, and learn from my colleagues to move up the career ladder. I’m now in charge of producing three internal newsletters as well as a newsletter for external stakeholders. I want to develop my PR skills more as well as work on writing my first book on the side.
CAMPAIGN SPOTLIGHT
Describe a campaign you were involved in and the activities you performed to bring it about:
One of the most recent campaigns I have worked on a monthly internal newsletter (The Loop) that goes to more than 3,000 employees. A colleague and I had to create a template on our email marketing software, CommuniGator that matched a design from the design team. I then had to go to 5 different areas of the wider organisation to inform them of The Loop and that we would need contact from each different business area.
I then worked with other colleagues to re write content, find pictures, edit and resize them to fit the template, create mailing lists and much more. I was involved from the very beginning – from creating content calendars, giving everyone in the team jobs and areas to get content from. By me taking ownership it enabled me to embed myself in the team and show that I’m the expert in what it is I do. After three issues we have already had some excellent feedback from all over the group, colleagues thanking us for producing it as it allows them to learn more about the business and what we do as well as celebrate our achievements. By keeping all employees up to date with what’s going on we’re boosting employee moral but also employee engagement, making everyone feel proud to work for a great organisation.