ILECS Spotlight: Lewis Brooks, from Apprentice to Marketing Manager

To mark National Apprenticeship Week 2023, we wanted to seize this opportunity to shine a spotlight on Marketing Manager, Lewis Brooks, who started his career at ILECS over 10 years ago. With ILECS’ support, he has since seen his career progress into multiple areas of the business and has participated in several large-scale developments both internally and in key client-facing areas of the company.

Lewis started his career at ILECS in 2011 as a Business Administration Apprentice, studying towards the level 2 NVQ in Business and Administration. The course provided the principles of delivering administrative services including the production of documentation, managing personal performance, and developing strong working relationships with internal stakeholders and colleagues.

When asked why he decided to undertake an apprenticeship at ILECS Lewis said, ‘After completing a business A-level at college, I knew I wanted to progress a career in business. I did not want to go to university as it just didn’t feel right for me, so instead I looked for apprenticeships. I saw an ILECS advert on the apprenticeship website, and it really appealed to me, so I applied and fortunately was given the opportunity after the interviewing process. The apprenticeship course really helped to set me up for a career in business.’

Following completion of this apprenticeship, Lewis became a Key Account Coordinator on the OneVision team, studying towards a level 3 NVQ Diploma in Business and Administration. Soon after that, he became a OneVision Account Manager.

An opportunity later arose to become a Commercial Assistant to work closely with Director and Company Secretary, Jayne Cotton who managed, trained and mentored him to benefit his long-term development. This opportunity led to his next role as Commercial Manager, overseeing the marketing, IT, and systems development. Lewis has since focused on the marketing side of his role and is excelling as Marketing Manager at ILECS.

Lewis has found the level of support provided by ILECS to be hugely impactful on his career progression, he said, ‘ILECS are passionate about the development of all their employees and in particular the junior level staff. They understand that the world of business is new to them, and they may require the time and effort of close mentorship to allow them to progress to their full potential. I’m grateful to have had this support from ILECS, which has definitely helped me to reach the position I am in now.’

With a quick but varied career progression, Lewis has been involved with some important projects at ILECS including the company rebrand in 2016, the development of ILECS’ OneVision lift portfolio management system and the office relocation in 2021. With internal support and encouragement, he is now undertaking an ILM level 5 qualification in Leadership and Management which is encouraging his strategic thinking to foster business improvements, using core management techniques to ultimately drive better results. 

Looking to the future, Lewis is ‘excited about the continued growth of the company’ and he feels ‘proud to have contributed to that’.

At ILECS, we are committed to providing our employees with ample professional development opportunities and training, please contact a member of our team if you are interested in starting your career with us.