A recent partnership between Phonetic Digital and ESPA College has shown just how impactful student placements can be.
This placement saw student Elliott design and present a full social media strategy tailored specifically for the college’s needs.
Elliott, who is currently studying at ESPA College, joined Phonetic Digital earlier this year on a weekly basis to gain hands-on, real life experience in the digital marketing world. What started as a placement quickly became a purposeful project, with Elliott really engaging and getting to explore everything digital marketing entails.
He got to input on the topics of each meeting, meaning he was in control and working on something that he actually found interesting. As a team, Elliott and the team at Phonetic Digital landed on creating a full social media strategy tailored to ESPA’s platforms and audience.
To give Elliott the true experience of a digital agency, every session really focussed on the impact of what we were creating together, using knowledge to inform the creation of an actionable social media strategy.
To develop a detailed social media campaign for ESPA college, we used the SOSTAC® planning framework (Situation, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action, and Control). The focus was on growing ESPA’s audience across their social media platforms, encouraging greater engagement by showcasing all the amazing work and societal impact the college has daily.
Throughout the project the Phonetic Digital team supported Elliott giving him skills, confidence and experience across multiple areas of digital marketing, before handing over the reins over to Elliott to present the final presentation himself.
The final presentation took place at ESPA’s head office in Sunderland where he got to present the final strategy to the CEO of ESPA gaining invaluable experience of a real-world meeting with a key business leader in a head office environment.
Phonetic Digital’s MD Steven Parker spoke on the partnership:
“It’s been brilliant to work with ESPA and get to know Elliott whilst helping him along on his journey to living a full independent life. We were able to give him an experience of what it’s like to work in an office, work to a schedule, complete tasks, and develop his critical thinking skills further.
Partnerships like this are invaluable to helping people gain first-hand experience in the workplace. This prepares them for the transition from school and college life, into the workplace.
We all enjoyed having Elliott here with us and wish him all the best for his future…even if he did delight in wearing his black and white colours to the office! ”
Speaking about the partnership Deputy CEO Patrick Cahill said:
“It’s been a privilege to witness Elliott thrive in a real commercial environment, ably supported by Steve, his team and ESPA staff. We’re looking forward to implementing the social media strategy and watching that good work flourish. Good luck to Elliott on his journey and many thanks to Phonetic Digital for your encouragement and unswerving commitment to providing opportunities for autistic people.”
This collaboration is an example of a work placement with actual value. Not only did Elliott gain real life experience in the workplace that will help him in the future, but he also left with newly developed skills that he can use in daily life.
The end result also provided ESPA College with a useful, actionable social media strategy. Elliott brought with him a deep understanding of digital platforms, offering fresh perspectives on recent updates, reminding Phonetic Digital that learning does in fact go both ways. It was a genuine collaboration where everyone involved took something meaningful away.
