WPP’s GroupM is partnering with Multiverse, the education tech start-up founded by Tony Blair’s son Euan, to recruit nearly 100 digital marketing apprentices.
The media-buying agency group’s first Digital Academy Programme has begun recruiting in Manchester and London for trainees that will specialise in search, social, programmatic and e-commerce.
The 15-month programme will involve “over 90” apprentices and all the roles are open to people without university qualifications. GroupM specialists will deliver training alongside Multiverse.
GroupM’s investment in its new Digital Marketing academy comes via the Apprenticeship Levy, a UK tax on employers designed to fund apprenticeship training.
Multiverse, previously known as WhiteHat, was founded in 2016 and secured $44m in Series B funding in January.
The company, founded by the ex-prime minister’s eldest son Euan Blair and Sophie Adelman, aims to match talented individuals with careers and deliver training in a wide range of qualifications related to leadership, digital, and tech.
Multiverse says its apprentices benefit from one-to-one coaching with an industry expert and are supported by a community through events, socials, mentoring and leadership programmes.
Blair said: “Recruiting talented digital marketers is essential to media and advertising agencies around the world, and apprenticeships are becoming the best way to find and develop that talent. The expansion of GroupM’s apprenticeship programme will create career defining opportunities for talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds.
“Professional apprenticeships offer a unique and exciting way for great companies to invest in their workforces and develop leaders of the future. Apprenticeship skills are taught, tested and learnt through immediate application in the workplace – that makes them a highly effective way to equip people with the skills they need to be successful.”
