At STM Agency, we’re committed to ‘growing our own’ – but what does this actually mean? No, we’re not setting up our own agency allotment (although it’s something to consider!) It’s our way of describing all the initiatives we’ve established to attract and nurture the talent of our brilliant team.
This all starts with the talent of the future. In 2023, we launched a brand-new apprenticeships programme – and we’re strengthening our partnerships with North-West universities with guest lectures, post-grad placements and other outreach activities. Beyond this, we’re applying this approach across the whole team with personal development plans, significant new hires and a focus on promoting from within. As our CEO Philip says, “with the right approach it’s an absolute win-win – great for the team, welcomed by our clients and open for our wider community.”
Keep reading for the lowdown on all the ways we’re growing: as an agency, as a team and as individuals.
Welcoming our apprentices
We were proud to welcome three talented apprentices to STM Agency last year Mercy, Hope, and Alex who have been with us for several months now working in Finance, Client Services, and Web Development, already sharing their bright ideas. This is one of the key reasons we were so keen to establish the programme – to bring new perspectives, energy and skills into our team and drive our core value of perpetual thinking. But in addition to this, having our apprentices with us is vital for senior staff’s development in training and mentoring. All-in-all, it’s strategy that sets us up as a forward-thinking agency dedicated to sustainable growth and innovation.
Partnering with universities
With offices based in Manchester, we’re in prime position to make the most of outreach opportunities with universities all over the North-West. This includes several initiatives planned for this year with Manchester Metropolitan Uni including mentoring marketing students and a variety of guest lectures, alongside an ongoing partnership with Lancaster University. We also have a placement student, Aanchal, who has joined us for a year long placement as part of her BSc Marketing Management from Lancaster University.
And last year, Lancaster also reached out to us to get involved with their ‘Marketing Me’ initiative – an internal challenge designed to give their students real-life experience of working on a campaign. The winners will soon be joining us at STM Agency to live a day in the life at our agency, and we’re looking forward to giving them some hands-on industry experience... more on that soon!
Developing everyone in our team
While it’s important to support those at the very start of their careers, we never forget about the other talented people working at every level of the agency. Since joining us in February last year, our Head of People Catherine MacDonald has made a huge difference in affirming our culture, growing our team and spearheading a host of initiatives designed to help everyone progress. As well as welcoming a host of new talent to STM Agency in 2023, we celebrated a number of high-profile promotions – and day-to-day, host regular Lunch & Learn and Centre of Excellence sessions to share the immense knowledge and expertise within the agency.
On top of all this, it’s important for us to spread the word of everything we’re doing at STM Agency to help us build our team and explore new opportunities in the agency. That’s why we were very excited to welcome new Senior Marketing Manager, Debbie Harrington at the end of last year, and look forward to seeing how she’ll shape our strategy over the coming 12 months.
2023 was a great year for development at STM Agency – which you can read even more about in this Prolific North article. And in 2024, all the initiatives we established are set to go from strength to strength. As we look ahead to another big year of ‘growing our own’, keep your eyes peeled for more posts sharing the stories of our apprentices, new starters and other talented team members from across our entire agency.