September Apprentice of the Month - Shakeera Begum
We are happy to announce that the winner of the LDN Apprentice of the Month is Digital Marketing Apprentice, Shakeera @ Literal Humans!
Shakeera started her apprenticeship just as she turned 17 and has gone from strength to strength in her role, already landing one of Literal Humans’ clients coverage in the BBC, Forbes, and The Guardian!
Check out Shakeera's winning Apprentice of the Month nomination from her LDN Skills Coach and Line Manager below along with our other fantastic nominations below!
Shakeera’s Skills Coach:
Shakeera really took things to another level recently – along with getting her company weekly podcast running better than ever and up to 2,000+ listens/episode, she recently landed one of her employer’s clients’ press coverage in the BBC as follows: Largest ever independent study into the effects of cannabis.
For her employers, Literal Humans, as an agency, this is a massive massive win and they will be building a case study off the back of her work that will be one of the very first things they send to prospects during their pitch process. Shakeera is simply revolutionising the way they operate. We have all been really blown away by her hard work and grit.
Shakeera’s Line Manager:
Energy:
Shakeera's infectious energy since starting has made her an important and popular member of our team. Despite only being 17, she more than holds her own in group conversations and regularly contributes brilliant content and digital marketing ideas for our clients. The nature of our agency means that the work is incredibly fast-paced and a lot gets thrown at you ad hoc. Shakeerahas risen to all these challenge time and time again, and I've actually had to chat with her about not working past her set hours to maintain a good work/life balance.
Enthusiasm:
Shakeera's enthusiasm is superb to see and it helps to lift the team. Whether she's chatting with our senior designer about love island or explaining to a group of 30+ year-olds how to use the latest bit of Gen Z slang, our company culture benefits massively from having Shakeera as part of it. The whole team genuinely enjoys working with Shakeera, and when she's away our weekly meetings are less fun. This enthusiasm spills over into her work as well, where she throws herself tirelessly into each task.
Willingness To Learn:
During her time with us Shakeera has worked as a copywriter, social media manager, content promotion specialist, market researcher, podcaster, brand ambassador, PR executive, SEO manager, and many more. All of these different roles require unique skills and mastery of specialist tools and software. Shakeera has taken to all of it with a smile on her face, and become a true swiss army knife of a marketer that can support me in all the many small and large digital marketing projects the agency runs.
Ability To Take Feedback:
When Shakeerahas made mistakes, or not understood a task, she listens and gets better. When she first started with us, her writing skills were a little ropey, and the first social media calendar she sent over needed extensive rewriting. Nowadays I am happy trusting her with an entire press release and know it'll only need minor edits. I only ever need to teach her a skill once (something I wish I could say of everyone in my team!)
Propensity To Take Action:
Shakeera has improved week on week with her ability to solve problems on the ground. A great example of this is the agency's podcast, which she now runs the operation of pretty much single-handedly. When she does have to bring something to my attention, I know it really does need more agency resources to get resolved. Again, if only I could say that of all the agency's team members! When I don't have Shakeera to support me, I notice my team's output is significantly diminished.
An example of an outstanding piece of work or task Shakeera has completed:
Shakeera has been running the PR for one of our clients, KCL. In only a couple of months, she's landed them coverage in the BBC, Forbes, and The Guardian. This is the first time we've landed coverage in so many of the UK's top-tier publications, and her work for this client will be used in one of the agency's flagship case studies – 'Kings College London | How we drove 6,000 survey respondents to the largest ever study on cannabis'. The whole team has been buzzing every time we land a new post and it’s really lifted team morale.
Our runner-up for this month is lvl 3 Salesforce Admin Apprentice Elisabete Ferreira! Elisabete was nominated by her LDN Skills Coach, James, with feedback provided by her line manager Farhan at Infopro Digital Services.
Elisabete’s Skills Coach:
Elisabete is doing a lvl 3 apprenticeship and also has had to complete Functional Skills English and Maths, whilst doing a great job at Infopro Digital Services in her second language. She passed her Maths exam at the first time of asking and despite this is still humble. She is looking to repeat this success in her upcoming English exam in October.
She is refreshingly honest, telling me that Flows are a challenge, but she still enjoys them, and is very much a crucial part of the Infopro team. Her line manager in our coaching sessions is always very positive regarding her contribution to the team and the work they do.
Elisabete’s line manager:
I have received a lot of great feedback from other teams for Elisabete’s positive attitude and for constantly being helpful. Elisabete is always enthusiastic to learn and take on more responsibility. She has shown a great appetite to grow herself with an incredible work ethic.
Elisabete is always looking to understand how the background processes work in Salesforce. After Elisabete started with us I was giving her much more complex development work than I originally planned because he demonstrated a great ability to learn and then put that knowledge to practice.
Here’s what was said about the other fantastic nominees:
Greta Giannecchini @ euNetworks:
From the very start, Greta has shown and demonstrated high levels of energy that is infectious amongst the team which has challenging targets and deadlines to be met on a regular basis. Greta cares!! By that I mean, she always wants to do the best of her ability and she doesn’t want to let anyone down.
Greta is self-driven, pays great attention to detail and is a quick and receptive learner, and puts what she’s learned straight into action.
Riaz Uddoh @ Tempest Resourcing:
Since our initial interview with Riaz, it was clear from the get-go what a great prospect he was with huge amounts of potential. Riaz quickly cemented himself as an important member of the team and business as a whole, which is a testament given the short space of time he has been with us.
Riaz has impressed from day one and I have no doubt he’ll continue to develop and has the potential to do whatever he wishes to do within the business.
Aleksandar Gelev @ Teach First:
From day one Aleks has brought great enthusiasm to the role and a desire to improve the level of customer service and workplace support to the organisation. Aleks is always open to supporting other colleagues with their tasks seeing this as an opportunities to learn new skills and develop.
Aleks is an asset to the organisation and long may it continue.
Zen Bhatti @ Pension Insurance Corporation:
Zen demonstrates that he enjoys being part of the team. He has well known and valued amongst his peers and the business. Zen has learned a lot since he has started with us. He always takes an active interest in the Service Desk tickets, helping without needing to be asked, has been an asset to the team.
Zen has just volunteered to become an LDN Class Rep, despite being extremely busy at work!
Serhat Kara @ Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan:
Coming from very different working background, technology in general is new to Serhat. From learning mobile device remote management, to getting an understanding of computer network, Serhat has shown keen interest and willingness to enable himself to be more independent with helping out users.
Sophie Dryburgh @ DK:
Sophie has hit the ground running ever since she joined and it’s hard to believe she’s only been with us for 4 months! She is a real asset to the team.
She always does the tasks to the best of her ability, to a very high standard, and always with a smile on her face. On the few days, Sophie has had to time off, it’s apparent how much work she does for the team!
Overall, Sophie has gained such confidence in the last few months and it's so lovely to see her work not going unnoticed. She really doesn't give herself enough credit!