On 3 July 2023, international performance marketing agency, R17 Ventures, welcomed its latest class of young minds to the R17 Academy at their offices in Cape Town. The R17 Academy is a 5-month paid internship programme that offers young South Africans the invaluable opportunity to gain all the tools and know-how to make it in the online advertising industry through theory and practical exposure, with the ultimate goal of employment as full-time performance marketers at R17 Ventures.
This is the second official academy in-take, following the success of the first in-take in January, which saw half of the interns receiving offers of full-time employment at the end of the programme as performance marketers, content creators and relationship managers.
Much like university, the academy is designed to be an experience that offers knowledge and know-how, team-building and fun; while at the same time giving its participants the opportunity to find a digital field that they’re passionate about.
The agency is hoping that the new in-take of the career acceleration programme will be even more successful than its predecessor.
R17 Ventures CEO and founder, Raphael Rohner said, “We found tremendous talent that is not only highly committed to making it in our industry, during our first academy run, but also incredibly driven and passionate.”
He went on to add, “Upskilling and development is a pillar of R17 and as an employer in South Africa, we view it as part of our responsibility to help solve youth unemployment and create opportunities for economic growth.”
Academy lead, Chanté Brand, who is a seasoned performance marketer in her own right, has worked in conjunction with other leads at the agency to create a strong curriculum that will help guide, mentor and grow academy members into fully fledged performance marketers and other roles in the growing R17 Ventures team.
By the end of the 5-month programme, the academy members will be well versed in search engine advertising, paid social and email marketing – with the ability to strategize, build campaigns across the marketing funnel, optimise and report.
The programme, which is not limited to graduates, is open to all young people looking to explore a career in the realm of digital marketing and online advertising.
Early applications for the R17 Academy January 2024 intake are now open. For more information, or to apply visit www.r17ventures.com/academy
Founded in Switzerland in 2020, R17 Ventures, boasts offices across the DACH region, as well as in South Africa, with branches in Zurich, Berlin and Cape Town – the latter being its largest office and core operations hub.