When looking for new employees, many business owners are looking for two things: qualifications and experience. We want to feel confident that the people we bring into our businesses have the skills and knowledge to do the job properly. And ideally, we’d like them to have some experience of doing it too. 

The less time it takes to train someone, the less it costs the business. The more quickly they become productive, the more efficient the whole process is and, ultimately, the more profitable our business will become. In theory.  

For applicants, and particularly young people, this can be a frustrating doomscroll through job sites, with position after position asking for the same impossible combination: qualification plus experience. The qualification might be there. But how do you actually get the experience unless someone, somewhere, gives you the chance to learn and gain it in the first place?

First paid jobs are now hard to come by 

At the age of 16, I had already had two jobs alongside my A-level studies. On Saturdays, I worked in a gift shop, back in the days when we wrote the price of a greetings card in pencil in the top left-hand corner of the inside, carefully rubbing it out before popping it in the paper bag. On Sundays, I served meals and washed up in the back kitchen of a beachside café. My manager kept the door open until we either ran out of customers or ran out of food. On hot summer days, we sometimes never quite knew when home time would come.

Although both these positions were unskilled work, and involved hours that probably wouldn’t be permitted today, I learned an enormous amount. I learned how to work alongside other people, serve customers and perhaps most importantly, gained confidence as I was trusted with more responsibility in each role. Sadly, these sorts of jobs are now increasingly hard to come by in a competitive job market. According to the latest figures published by the British Retail Consortium, the retail sector has lost more than 400,000 jobs over the past decade, reducing the number of weekend job opportunities available to young people across the UK.

University places are losing their appeal 

For decades, the most common path for A-level students was the lure of university education, with a significant Government milestone reached in 2019, when more than 50% of young adults chose to take up a university place. With the rising cost of tuition fees, surging living costs and the prospect of long-term debt, many 18-year-olds are now starting to rethink their career paths.

At the same time, economic pressures, increases in National Insurance and the introduction of AI-driven efficiencies mean organisations, both large and small, are looking at their staffing needs differently. Earlier this week, the BBC reported that graduate job vacancies in the UK had dropped by almost 50% in a year. As a small business, we are certainly seeing the impact. We are now receiving far more applications than we used to from graduates looking for junior marketing positions.

The push to embrace apprenticeships for youth unemployment

Youth unemployment and the cost of living continue to make the headlines, and the Government is understandably keen to find ways to tackle the issue. Earlier this year, in March, the Government issued a press release committing to help unlock 200,000 new jobs and apprenticeships for the next generation.  

From 1 August 2026, there are also new incentives for businesses looking to take on an apprentice. These include 100% Government funding for training, employers being exempt from paying National Insurance for eligible apprentices, and a further £2,000 incentive for introducing an apprenticeship scheme. For small businesses in particular, this could make taking that first step towards employing an apprentice a much more realistic proposition.  

A fresh perspective from the digital generation 

At Your Marketing Team, we’re growing. We’ve signed three new clients over the summer, which is usually a quieter period for us. There’s plenty of work to do, and between us we have many years of experience behind us. But there are also many tasks in our office that could be done by someone more junior, with the right guidance, support and training. Having a physical office creates the perfect environment for learning on the job, asking questions face-to-face and picking things up by working alongside people who have been doing it for years. 

And there’s another benefit. Young people who have grown up in a digital, and now increasingly AI-driven, world can bring an incredibly valuable perspective to a marketing business. Those with a passion for marketing communications often come with knowledge, skills and ideas they have developed through their hobbies, personal social media channels and voluntary work. Our most recent recruit, for example, ran his own travel blog and Instagram account just for fun.  

We are hiring 

For a small business like Your Marketing Team, an apprenticeship provides an opportunity to train someone towards a recognised marketing qualification while they are actually doing the job they are learning about. It also means we can develop someone who understands our business, our clients and the way we work, while freeing up existing members of the team to take on more responsibility as the company grows. 

We are currently looking for a Marketing Assistant to join our team and work towards a Multi-Channel Marketer Level 3 qualification over 20 months. 

We do need a minimum of five GCSE passes, including English and Maths. But beyond that, a great attitude, a genuine passion for marketing and a willingness to learn are far more important to us than a long list of educational achievements. Sometimes, the best way to find out what someone can do is simply to give them the opportunity to show you. 

For more information, take a look at the job description and submit your application by Monday 7 September 2026.