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Growing with Target: My First Six Months as a Digital Marketing Apprentice

My name is Jess and I joined Target through a digital marketing apprenticeship with Baltic Apprenticeships in early August 2025. It’s just about to come up to my 6 months of working for Target and that time has gone way too quickly... 

I finished my A-levels in Fine art, Psychology and Biology in 2024 and had no idea what I wanted to do afterwards, but I always had a gut feeling I wanted to do something creative. 

School tried to steer me towards university, but I knew that wasn’t for me. With my interest in creating and how people interact with brands and products, I applied for a Digital Marketing Apprenticeship with Baltic who discussed my interests, skills and passions.  

They then found me an opportunity for an apprenticeship with a well-known IT distributor – I was lucky enough to be interviewed and, well, here I am now. 

I was extremely nervous as this was my first full-time role and I had no idea what to expect. In addition, I would be working and completing my apprenticeship course at the same time, so I was a bit worried how I was going to cope. 

From the start, I was given tasks that allowed me to feel as if I genuinely added value to Target, posting on socials to inform customers of products, designing content, email marketing and plenty more. The entire atmosphere of Target was welcoming. It was lovely to see a company who valued their employees just as much as its customers.  

I had never had any experience in the IT sector before being at Target, so I spent a day in the PC Build Room where all of Target’s custom and off-the-shelf PCs are built. I helped to build, test and package a custom PC that had already been sold to a customer! This was such a valuable experience and helped me understand the technical bits that would help me in my own role. 

Target is also an Employee-Owned Trust (EOT) which puts most of the ownership into the hands of Target’s staff, meaning everyone takes notice of how the company performs, so my job is just as important as anyone else’s and impacts everyone else. It sounds overwhelming but it does mean everyone will want you to be the best you can be and provide the support you need to do it. 

Marketing for Target is so busy, but it’s so rewarding. As I’ve learned, the IT channel is forever changing which allows me to learn new skills with it, especially with the introduction of AI…now that’s a big new topic to learn!! 

If I were to tell myself 6 months ago that I would now be responsible for our social media, event planning, creating all our digital content and taking on my own campaigns, I’d probably have laughed. 

But I’m now halfway through my apprenticeship and I’m excited what’s to come...we have some big events coming up, more promotions and new products, all of which I will be involved in. My apprenticeship journey so far has shown me what it feels like to be part of something meaningful, a place where I finally feel I belong, with lots of support from Baltic and Target, and the chance to try my hand at a wide variety of activities, all of which add to my skills and potential to progress to bigger challenges (and a higher salary!).