Tangerine leading the way for apprenticeships in Manchester's digital scene

Integrated communications consultancy, Tangerine, is helping Manchester maintain its status as a leading digital city after being recognised as one of the UK’s top apprenticeship providers in the prestigious City & Guilds Top 100 Apprenticeship Employer list.

The listing, which was revealed at the National Apprenticeship Awards 2014 during The Skills Show at NEC Birmingham on Thursday 13th November, acknowledges the highest standards of excellence in employing apprentices across the UK. The consultancy achieved this status just over one year after it launched The Juice Academy in Manchester, the UK’s first industry-led social media apprenticeship programme.

Founded in July 2013, The Juice Academy was established to create career opportunities for young people and up-skill the industry, by reducing the digital skills gap. Since its inception it has placed nearly 70 apprentices with leading North West businesses, including Pets At Home, Regatta and JW Lees.

John Myers from the Skills Funding Agency’s, National Apprenticeship Service, said: “Apprenticeships continue to grow in popularity and it is an exciting time for Manchester. Thanks to organisations like The Juice Academy the digital scene is flourishing and offering a multitude of long-term career opportunities for young people in the region. For Tangerine and The Juice Academy to be recognised as a leader in digital skills by this national listing is very fitting.”

Tangerine has itself recruited and up-skilled six North West teens through The Academy, with the long-term goal of developing them into senior digital professionals within the business over the next 5-10 years.

The Juice Academy's Lucy and Amy with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg

As part of the programme, apprentices are trained in all areas of social media management, including developing content for social sharing, creating a digital strategy, keyword analysis and SEO, and social media for mobile.

The Top 100 listing comes after the sector-changing apprenticeship collected a number of prestigious accolades that recognise its outstanding training of apprentices.

This is a huge win for the city, after The Juice Academy was also recently awarded with a national certificate of excellence, the matrix Standard, which is only presented to organisations with the highest quality training for apprentices, in addition to the Creative and Digital Skills for Business Award.

Sandy Lindsay, chair of Tangerine and founder of The Juice Academy, said: “As social media has advanced, the PR & marketing industry has experienced a growing skills gap in this field.

“In response, we tapped into the ‘born digital’ talent pool in the North West and are up-skilling savvy young people in all areas of commercial social media to work across our varied client portfolio. We’re successfully nurturing the digital talent of the future while meeting our business needs, and it’s great to be recognised for this achievement with this national listing.”