Student Toby Radnedge-Eddleston has a bright future ahead of him after securing a job with a Bath-based global marketing communications agency.
Toby, from Bath College, is due to start work as a Digital Media Executive at Publitek in Brock Street, near the Royal Crescent.
The 17-year-old from Corsham is the first college student to be hired by Publitek, which specialises in business-to-business (B2B) technical marketing.
He is due to finish an IT extended diploma Level 3 at Bath College and was offered the job after an interview set up by the college.
Last year, Bath College set up the FutureSpark Academy to offer students opportunities with technology companies in the South West.
Toby, who is set to finish his studies with top grades, will be monitoring and reporting website traffic and managing advertising campaigns for the agency’s clients.
He said: “I really like the creative side of IT. My college course developed my skills and helped me expand what I was doing outside of college.
“I have my own blog and that’s a big part of why they liked me. It really did seem like a good offer and I didn’t have anything definite I wanted to study at university.
“When I was at the interview, they were saying there’s room to do different things. They were also supportive if I wanted to do a degree later on. It’s nice to see that someone thinks I’m right for the job, that I’ve got something offer.”
Sally Jones, Board Adviser at Publitek, interviewed a number of Bath College students and was impressed with Toby.
She said: “We work in a specialist area – electronics and engineering. Many of our team are degree-qualified engineers and we need people who can really understand and write about technical concepts.
“This is the first time we’ve taken someone from college. This is for a new role in the company and we’re sure that Toby is going to develop and grow in the job. He is clearly very bright and open to learning.”
Bath College IT students Luke Nix, Tom Alcock and Dawid Cejrowski have also secured their futures as apprentices with Westgate IT.
The students, who are due to start at the end of May, will be helping companies set up and fix IT systems.
Luke, 17, from Bath said: “The thing about apprenticeships is that you’re there to learn. When you go into a job they expect you to do everything straight away, but in an apprenticeship you’re learning as you go.
“When you’re in college and you’re getting close to the end of your course you want to be out there putting into practice what you’ve learnt.
“I’m looking forward to starting at the bottom and working my way up. The college provide a good reference if you work hard and get on with your tutors.”
Daisy Walsh, Head of Department for Technology, said: “It is great to see that employers are approaching us to fill really interesting positions in their organisations.
“We also have students on long-term placements in other digital and web design agencies via the college’s FutureSpark work experience programme.
“Toby is a great example of the demand for outstanding IT students in the digital marketing sector.”
