Case Study

Mooshmedia Marketing Ltd | Tom Westlake Age 16

'A creative design agency in Cornwall has found an apprentice with a big future ahead of him.'

Darren Higgs, Managing Director of Mooshmedia Marketing Ltd, which was established 10 years ago and is based in Bude, has found an apprentice with a lot of talent. Tom Westlake, 16, from Bude, has been in the job for just a few months and already has been spotted as having the potential to run the company.  

Manager Darren Higgs said: “Our target is for Tom to grow within the business and gain the skills and technical know-how to manage it himself on a day to day basis; to win new business, work closely with clients, and get the jobs out of the door at the standard our clients expect.”

“We’re a small design agency which experienced rapid growth in 2008 so we had to expand our manpower to meet the demands of our clients. After employing a graduate who didn’t work out, we were approached by a local 16-year-old keen to get experience in design and found that Creative Apprenticeships were available through Plymouth College of Art.”

“After a couple of weeks, we were very, very impressed by Tom. I gave him a laptop with Adobe Creative Suite 4 to take home and get acquainted with, and he picked up the software really quickly.”

“From day one Tom has worked on fully commercial jobs. He’s been successful designing business cards, leaflets and numerous websites and has really supported me by sharing the workload on several projects. We work with some outstanding corporate and consumer clients, producing intelligent solutions and engaging design and Tom has really taken this ethos on board.”

“As we have been getting busier and busier, it has been important to employ someone who understands the way we work; what’s expected of them, and who we can train from scratch in technical expertise, and who doesn’t come with any bad habits.”

The benefits of hiring an apprentice have been invaluable for Mooshmedia, who say the financial rewards are great: “Not only is it cost-effective for a business in the first two to three years - but for the apprentice, there is no doubt that they come out of the apprenticeship better off than by going to university and accumulating £15k of debt.”

Asked if an apprentice was the right choice for his company, he agreed it was:  “I would absolutely hire an apprentice again; in fact it would be my first choice before recruiting a skilled applicant. Tom is a very hardworking individual so for us hiring an apprentice has been an excellent choice.”

Mooshmedia is undergoing a rapid period of expansion and will soon be moving to larger premises in February.

For more information about apprenticeships, visit www.creativebusinessservices.com.

For more about Mooshmedia visit

www.mooshmedia.com.