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Joining CEIS Ayrshire as a Digital Marketing Assistant

I registered with CEIS Ayrshire as a client in January 2022.  The team there provided me with skills and training, and I have now been employed by CEIS Ayrshire as their Digital Marketing Assistant.  In this blog post I will be reflecting on my time registering for support and working with CEIS Ayrshire.

Before I registered with CEIS Ayrshire I was working for the Student Loans Company in Glasgow as a Customer Advisor. I started working there in April 2019 and left in September 2020.  Due to the pandemic, the lockdowns and working from home in a stressful job I decided to leave for my own mental health as depression started to weigh down on me.

I was living off my savings until I started signing on at the Job Centre in Saltcoats in August 2021.  Before Christmas 2021 my Work Coach mentioned I could register with CEIS Ayrshire for further employability support.

Registering with CEIS Ayrshire

In January 2022 my Work Coach referred me to CEIS Ayrshire and within a week I had an appointment with Allison Millar who would be my Key Worker.  The registration process was straight forward, and Allison was great at making me feel at ease and explaining the things that CEIS Ayrshire can support me with.

Allison added me to some online training courses including Cyber security and Stress Management.  I was also added to the Elevator Pitch workshop which I found very useful as it provided me with the training needed to pitch myself to employers in a concise way.

An opportunity came up within CEIS Ayrshire for a Digital Marketing Assistant.  This position was a part time temporary position for 6 months and was funded by North Ayrshire Council’s No One Left Behind programme.

Training Provided and Skills Gained

I expressed an interest in the position to Allison and she thought it would be a perfect fit for me.  I used the skills learned from the Elevator Pitch workshop at the interview for the position and felt that it went well thanks to the support from Allison.

Keith Mason the Business Services & Development Manager called me a couple of weeks later offering me the position with a start date of the 1st of March 2022.

During my 6-month contract I received further training and support from CEIS Ayrshire.  I gained accredited certificates for Social Media for Business and Search Engine Optimisation.  I also benefited from support from Mark Fraser the Digital Communications and Engagement Officer for the CEIS Group who provided me a chance to shadow him and supported me in my new position.

The 6-month contract was due to end in September 2022.  However, CEIS Ayrshire offered me a fulltime permanent position and I was also offered the opportunity to undertake a Modern Apprenticeship in Digital Marketing.  I have now been working with CEIS Ayrshire for 10 months and I am progressing well through my Modern Apprenticeship.  This is providing me with new skills and training opportunities to improve my current skillset.

I am grateful for the support CEIS Ayrshire provided me with and I am enjoying my new position as a Digital Marketing Assistant.

If you want to know more about our online training courses, you can find them here.