Meet
Jordan

Age 32

Area Exeter, Devon

Jordan has been interested in pursuing a career in Marketing for a while and after the COVID-19 pandemic she saw an advert for Skills Bootcamps in her local newspaper and decided to sign up to the Digital Marketing Bootcamp at Exeter College.

“Since leaving school and going to uni, I didn’t want to get into more student debt. I was starting to feel a bit run down to the point where I wasn’t even considering taking up a new course because of the cost. I still had that little spark where I wanted to do marketing – which is when I saw this course!”

“I’ve worked in the charity and healthcare sector, and it wasn’t an environment where I was able to create things. I like to be more in touch with what’s happening in the world and it was starting to feel like I was being left behind.”

“It’s a huge umbrella and so many roles and skills fall under it. Finding a specific role was definitely a challenge but through the course I could see I was developing a passion for creativity and a fondness for content creation.”

Jordan said: “The course providers collaborate with other organisations and businesses in the local area who can offer advice, support and connections for your next steps.”

During the 16-week course, Jordan learnt about a variety of topics including Media platforms, SEO and Google IQ. She also had the opportunity to complete further qualifications along the way. She said:

“We got the initial certificate in Digital Marketing and Communications but we now also have the chance to do the next level up which is a Content Creation course – which is what I’m going to do next! During the course we were also shown other qualifications we could get like Google Analytics, Google Ads and Google Shopify.”

“It’s a fantastic programme, it definitely is. A lot of people think that they can’t afford to go back to college and with having these courses available means it just isn’t true. I did it, and I’m glad I did. It opened up opportunities to progress and showed me the free resources that are available.

“The Skills Bootcamps programme means that you don’t have to get into debt to pursue the career that you want!”

Since completing the course Jordan has had interviews for new roles but has also been able to apply some of her new skills around email marketing to her current role.

“It’s a completely new field for me, so I’m definitely still learning and planning to keep using the resources and free courses out there to upskill.”

Jordan’s course was one day a week and a mixture of in-person and online learning – which made it easy for Jordan to balance with her current role.

“It was easy to balance the course with my day-to-day. The staff at the college were accommodating and helped us fit the learning around our lives rather than vice-versa – they were really supportive.

“The in-person sessions were beneficial, and it was nice because there were people on the course from entirely different backgrounds – public, private and charity sectors, as well as self-employed people who were looking to up their skills for the benefit of their own business. There were also people there like me who were wanting to get into an entirely new sector.”

Jordan’s advice for future learners is simple – what do you have to lose?

Join the thousands supercharging their skills and find out more about the Skills Bootcamps available in Devon and Cornwall this year.