What is Acadium?
Acadium is a free education system where students are trained on the job by business owners through remote, digital apprenticeships. So, it doesn’t matter where in the world you’re located. They offer digital marketing training and apprenticeships to help you start or develop your career. Their apprenticeships allow you to train under a company for a period of 3 months in exchange for professional credit and experience.
Acadium Apprenticeship: What Should I know?
Once registered with Acadium, you’ll have the opportunity to browse the profiles of dozens of business owners who display their accomplishments and areas of expertise. With this information, you can identify a business owner to reach out to.
Here is an example of a business owner’s profile.
Depending on what your overall objective is, you can determine who will be a good fit based on the experience listed in the business owner’s profile. You may want to learn more about SEO, creating brand awareness, how to market on social media or content marketing. Whatever it may be, reach out to a mentor who has the experience.
What should I say when I find a match?
Once you’ve browsed several profiles and found potential mentors you’d be interested in working with, messaging them is simple. But what should you say? This is easy. You could say the following:
Hello!
My name is Del Cromartie, I am eager to learn how to effectively advertise to markets and create valuable content. Are there any tasks you need an apprentice to complete? I am looking forward to hearing back from you!
Respectfully,
Del
Simple, and sweet. From this example, you can plug and play based on what you’re looking to learn. You can also state areas where you have experience as well, such as using WordPress or Canva.
Acadium Apprenticeship: What to Expect
After you have identified who you’d like to work with, an agreement outlining the terms of your contract is signed by you and the business owner. This will state that you will work under them for 3 months and for 10 hours a week.
10 hours a week may not seem like much. But if you’re like me, work full time, go to college, and have a personal life, I advise you to begin with one apprenticeship at a time. Simple tasks can become overwhelming when adding to the responsibilities you’re already committed to.
Each week, you and your mentor will have the opportunity to rate each other’s performance.
If something were to arise where you could not complete the 3 months, simply express that to your mentor. Avoid leaving them high and dry. Contact Acadium and the agreement will be terminated. It is better to identify any issues sooner rather than later.
Your mentor will be counting on you to complete tasks. However, they will understand the challenges that prevent you from completing the apprenticeship.
Your tasks and responsibilities will be laid out for you by your mentor. The two of you may communicate daily, or several times a week via email, phone calls, or text. The great thing about this relationship is that you gain hands-on experience and they obtain an apprentice to complete tasks that allow them to focus on other aspects of their business.
Your performance could potentially lead to them highering you. It’s not guaranteed or required, but it is a possibility.
Continue reading to learn how things turned out with the completion of my first Acadium Apprenticeship!
What else does Acadium offer?
Before you commit, you can complete one of the several free courses offered on their platform. This gives you the opportunity to refine and build skills to help you be successful. Mentors can also see which courses you have completed which could lead to them wanting to work with you.
Here is a list of courses currently offered.
As you can see, Acadium offers a lot to those who are just starting off.
Regardless of your background in digital marketing, there is something here for everyone. Whatever your interests are, there are courses on a wide range of topics to increase your knowledge.
They provide free tools and resources to learn and gain experience. With only 3 months, you’re not committed to a long term contract, but it’s long enough to determine whether or not this is for you.
This has helped me tremendously. Being what I call, an Active Duty Entrepreneur, there have been several challenges perusing business ventures along with moving every few years.
I am able to learn at my own pace with free resources and have the ability to earn from anywhere in the world.
Even while deployed I am still able to learn and earn money. The only thing I need is the internet, my phone and laptop.
The results of my apprenticeship
won’t lie, it was challenging at times. Being active duty, I work very long days. With school and home life, I still have to squeeze in those 10 hours each week. Fortunately, I was able to complete my tasks from my laptop on my lunch break, or in the evenings.
I held it down and successfully obtained a certificate of completion.
I was fortunate to be offered a paid position to continue the work I performed as an apprentice. My hard work paid off!
In Conclusion
My experience with Acadium was a challenging but great one. I gained a lot of knowledge and experience that I can apply to in the future.
Anyone looking to take advantage of this opportunity can register today for free and begin their journey to a successful career in digital marketing.