A marketing agency has invested £500,000 in a new scheme aimed at helping graduates and young people “ignite” their careers.

Horwich-based Absolute Agency says the “Ignite” graduate scheme will help young people develop their careers over a 12-month period.

The company says that the half a million pound scheme will give trainees access to live client briefs and one-to-one guidance from senior mentors.

Managing director Chris Hodgen said: “Greater Manchester is the fastest growing tech hub in the UK and the largest outside of London.

“With this great opportunity also comes increasing challenges for recruitment with some graduates not considering an agency career.

The Bolton News: A team of trainees at Absolute AgencyA team of trainees at Absolute Agency (Image: Oyster PR and Communications)

“We want to ignite the careers of bright spark graduates and have created the programme to exactly do this.

“We have committed so much investment as we believe passionately in supporting the next generation and our training programme will hopefully help to retain digital and creative talent in the north west.”

Six positions have been created at the Lee Lane based company, including marketing assistant, account executive, junior creative, junior front end developer, junior back end developer and junior content creator.

Mr Hodgen says that the team will be closely guided and trained in a 12-month programme to help launch their agency careers.

He says that whether they choose to go down a creative, marketing or development route, they will receive training and experience, while being paid, that will help them move into the wider agency world of work or stay at Absolute Agency. 

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This will include one to one mentorship and work on live client projects as part of the paid 12-month development programme.

The company claims that recruits will also be able to gain confidence in presenting to clients, structured internal and external training, away days with the wider team, exposure to industry networks and industry insights.

Applications are now open for six months, before a detailed interview process takes place between April and May.

Offers will then be sent out to the successful applicants from June 2024 before starting the programme in August 2024, which will be in line with students completing their final year studies.