Last week, Agent Academy CIC, the UK’s first fully-funded marketing academy celebrated the successes of its pilot project with a graduation ceremony honouring its first cohort of students.

Over 100 business leaders attended the celebration at the academy’s Liverpool headquarters, located in the city’s Baltic Triangle, to recognise the achievements of the cohort’s students – ten young people from across the Liverpool City Region.

In attendance at the graduation ceremony were representatives from Lloyds Banking Group, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, Shop Direct and Sylvia Pearson, head of SSE North West and a director of Agent Academy CIC.

Sylvia shared her enthusiasm for the marketing programme during her commencement speech by congratulating the academy’s young people on their accomplishments and commitment to the programme.

In August 2014, Agent Academy CIC was launched by Agent Marketing – a full-service marketing agency with offices in Liverpool and London – and over 12 weeks a group of ten specially-selected students explored the marketing industry.

These ten students gained hands-on experience through an action-based learning programme. The programme saw them engaging with key-business leaders and marketing experts from across the city region from organisations such as; Liverpool City Council, the Liverpool Echo and the Everyman & Playhouse.

Director of Agent Academy CIC, Paul Corcoran, said:

“Tonight’s graduation is the culmination of months of hard-work invested in Agent Academy CIC by our students, my team and the organisations who have kindly supported the first programme. The time, expertise and resources offered to Agent Academy CIC by city leaders and key organisations from across the region has been overwhelming, we’re thrilled and truly thankful for this support.

“It brings me a great sense of pride to have seen our ten young people grow into confident, enthusiastic marketeers, ready to set the industry ablaze with their talents. I’m happy to announce that one of the Academy’s students has already been recruited by a respected employer and has commenced a full-time career as a consequence of their engagement with Agent Academy CIC. There will be many more employment opportunities for our young people following this unique learning experience.

“The programme isn’t an internship, or even an apprenticeship, but a supportive learning hub providing pratical engagement and hands-on discovery, rather than simply offering theory based development. Following the successes of this programme, we’re now recruiting for our second cohort, due to take place in the first week of March. We want talent to stay in the city and I’m proud to say that Agent is at forefront of this campaign – we’re putting our money where our mouth is to help make this vision a reality.”

To find out more visit www.agentacademy.org.uk, email tom@agentacademy.org.uk or head to Twitter and follow @Agent_Academy.