It’s all high knees, calf stretches and jumping jacks round here as we warm up for the first Sookio Agency Bootcamp! We’re putting on a lively week of learning, training and challenges to offer a whole cohort of graduates essential experience in marketing and agency life.

Founder Sue Keogh explains how the idea came about and what attendees can expect from the week ahead…

So, what do you want to achieve?

At Sookio we’re all about best practice and sharing the knowledge. It’s so important to share this with the younger generation coming through, give people a helping hand. It’s not easy to get that first job in marketing and we know how critical it can be to show some real experience on your CV and something tangible in your portfolio.

Have you spent a lot of time planning?

No. I only came up with the idea on Monday, after a weekend spent fuming about the way this year’s A Level results had been handled and the general challenges facing young people right now! I can’t fix the system but if I can take positive action, I will.

So I put a rough outline together, put it to the team and we refined the timetable of activities together. Everyone’s really excited about it.

Remote work experience. How’s that work?

It’s funny how challenges actually present opportunities!

We can’t take the usual approach of having one person in the office for a week or two at a time, but that means we can open it up and invite many more people along. The same commitment of time from the team, but magnifying the benefits.

I tentatively put out a post on LinkedIn and Twitter, and before we knew it, there was a group of around 20 brilliant graduates lined up, all of whom I know will benefit hugely from the experience.

How do you plan remote work experience activities?

It can’t all be done online or we’ll all get Zoom fatigue!

So we have a lively mix of activities on a simple daily timetable:

• Join the Sookio team for the morning meeting

• Spotlight on different roles in a marketing agency

• Tasks and challenges to complete individually

• Regular check-ins

• Plus some shadowing as we prep for workshops, talks and client meetings

We’re also sending out a read-watch-listen list of blogs, podcasts and Sookio School marketing courses, with the request that they complete at least three a day.

What will attendees have at the end of this mini-marketing internship?

As well as a real understanding of what it’s like to work in marketing, we want them to come away with tangible content they can add to their portfolios.

We want to give our students real-world experience:

• demonstrate how to think about client briefs and client needs

• devise social media strategies and campaigns

• create video concepts and storyboards

• learn how deliver metrics and reports clients can use

Some of the content will also feature on the Sookio blog and social media channels. We’re looking forward to sharing far and wide.

Why are we only offering graduate work experience?

We have years of experience in running training sessions and we know how it’s always a better experience if everyone is at a similar level. It means group discussions are more valuable and it’s easier to set activities that suit everyone too.

So for this first agency bootcamp, we’ve designed it to help graduates who are still studying or have recently completed their course discover what it’s like to work in a marketing agency and the typical roles on offer.

Will we be offering work experience in marketing to A Level and GCSE students too?

We have exciting plans in the works! We’ll be teaming up with Form the Future to come up with a structured programme with local schools who we think will benefit the most. Watch this space!

How can you get involved next time?

To be the first to know about any future work experience programmes in marketing we’re running, please sign up to the mailing list.

Or send an email and CV to jobs@sookio.com and we’ll make sure you’re on the list for next time.