Online entrepreneur Penny Power has designed the courses, that will focus on the use of Twitter and Facebook for sales, marketing, networking and other commercial activity.
Mrs Power, who is head of the Digital Youth Academy and a former government advisor on internet matters, has joined forces with Milton Keynes College to deliver the courses.
She is pictured as she outlined the aim of the training to employers at a special event held at the college on Monday evening. The courses will target already internet-savvy young people to use their skills for business.
Adi Gupta, Milton Keynes College’s head of computing and IT, said: “The use of digital media is becoming an indispensable tool for businesses, especially in the SME sector. To take full advantages of everything the modern internet can offer to a company, it is really important to have staff who are completely comfortable in the digital world.
“The course will benefit employers enormously as having this kind of cutting edge expertise in-house will potentially give them a real commercial edge.”
Apprentices will learn how to formulate a digital marketing strategy, increase sales and productivity and grow the business for which they work. They will also be taught how to blog effectively, plan online content and produce digital newsletters.
Mr Gupta said: “Young people are so comfortable with social media because they take it for granted as a normal and ever-present part of their lives. What this apprenticeship will do is to allow them to use those skills they already have, to improve upon them and to make them work for them and their employers.”
