New Apprentice joins the team from Pleasure Beach, Blackpool

Democracy PR is continuing their investment into emerging talent in the industry with a new recruit joining the growing team as a PR Apprentice.

Hannah Telford, 28, joins Democracy after working as Assistant PR Coordinator for the renowned Pleasure Beach, Blackpool. Her in-house experience in such a busy and well respected PR office was the perfect platform to launch and pursue her career in PR.

 More than 150 candidates applied for the role, the recruitment of which was managed by Ian Hudson of Psycuity. A shortlist of 30 candidates were tested for their strengths in written and verbal communications, commercial understanding and creative thinking. From this, the top five high performing candidates whose personality would add the most benefit with the culture of the agency were brought in for interview.

 Founder of Democracy PR, Jennifer O’Grady comments: “We want candidates that are bright, creative and hardworking with strong skills in English and a desire to immerse themselves in the world of digital and social PR. Getting a true understanding of how a candidate will add to your team is not something that you can discover in the usual ‘beauty parade’ interview process that many agencies use to find their staff.

 “As a small team offering excellent value for money to their clients, you can’t afford to carry people who aren’t up to the job. Hannah is talented and is just the right person to enhance the team at this moment, we look forward to seeing how she progresses during her apprenticeship with Democracy.”

  Hannah Telford adds: “I didn’t come to PR following a traditional route. After years of performing as a professional dancer, I decided to move into a career that played to some of my other creative talents including writing and creative thinking. Pleasure Beach was a great starting point and I can’t wait to begin my new fast track apprenticeship with Democracy PR.”

 The appointment comes at a critical time for the increasingly expanding team at Democracy PR. The agency, celebrating the start of their third year in business has just moved into larger offices at Cosgrove Hall in Chorlton and has recently picked up client wins including Scruffs Workwear and Bodykind, the online health and wellbeing retailer.

 Hannah Telford previously performed as a professional dancer travelling the world with companies such as `Moulin Rouge`. The hard work, discipline and determination to succeed are all qualities that Democracy PR looks for in every member of their team.

 In 2008, Democracy PR took on Charlotte Morley, 23 as their first PR Apprentice. Following a successful year of training, including hands on experience at newspapers and radio stations, Charlie was promoted to Client Advocate in January 2010. Charlie’s favourite moment of her apprenticeship was taking competition winners from across the UK to Lynchburg Tennessee for the Jack Daniel’s BBQ Championships.