A digital marketing apprentice’s story

The View from Here

Spotlight on Raquel Torres-Miramonte

For Raquel Torres-Miramonte, a crime created an opportunity to become Two Octobers’ inaugural digital marketing apprentice. 

After the incident, Focus Points Colorado, among others stepped up to help Raquel. They worked to get her back on her feet, find employment, and get the necessary support. They introduced her to Two Octobers and the apprenticeship program — which looked like an interesting opportunity to learn, grow, and work with a talented team.

Prior to the apprenticeship, Raquel was working in a warehouse role which was centered on labor – putting together fans to keep electrical units cool, a job with little to no opportunity for advancement. Raquel also tried veterinary tech school, but seeing the animals in pain was too heavy for her. 

She had the combination of motivation, curiosity and problem-solving ability that Two Octobers was looking for in an apprentice, and it seemed like a good fit to her too. 

“I don’t think I ever imagined that I would have a desk job or something more professional that isn’t like manual labor and getting paid for it. It’s been amazing.”  

Her advice to incoming apprentices: plan ahead, figure out your schedule, and most importantly, be patient with yourself. There’s a whole lot of learning and don’t get frustrated just because you don’t know something right off the bat.

The Two Octobers Apprenticeship program is built on the principle that anyone who is 18 or older with a high school diploma or GED can join. We do not require work experience or post-high-school education. It’s designed to take about three years to complete. Completion of the apprenticeship is based on demonstration of a list of competencies and related instruction, so it could take more or less time than that, depending on the level of availability.

We provide extensive on-the-job training for the duration of the apprenticeship. Apprentices also do some community college and online coursework to augment their training and prepare for a career in digital marketing. Our goal is to be able to offer apprentices permanent employment at Two Octobers at the completion of the apprenticeship. 

As a small business, we have limited capacity to take on our own apprentices, but we are working to promote the idea of apprenticeship as a path to professional employment across our industry. In the words of one of our founders, Nico Brooks:

“College is not an option or a fit for a lot of people. Requiring experience and a degree for entry-level jobs is not only unjust, it is bad for our business. The best teams I have been a part of weren’t built on credentials, they succeeded based on passion and diverse perspectives.”

If you would like to learn more about our apprenticeship or apprenticeship in general, please reach out, we would love to share and help! You can also learn more about our digital marketing apprenticeship here.