June 2023 - Digital marketing not-for-profit apprenticeship provider, The Juice Academy, has been acquired by its partner of four years, Apprentify Group. The acquisition will support The Academy as it brings more organisations on board to deliver apprenticeships in new areas and launches a fund to support and promote social mobility.

The Juice Academy was created in 2013 by leading marketing consultancy, Tangerine Communications and has created more than 600 roles to date. Under its new owners, The Academy will be seeking additional partners to offer career opportunities in other sectors. The first two of these, with Smoking Gun, who will be offering the Public Relations apprenticeship, and Jane Montague Consultancy to provide charity Fundraiser apprenticeships were announced recently.

In recognition of The Juice Academy’s original mission, the share of the initial sale price that is paid to its majority shareholder, Sandy Lindsay MBE, will be given to the charity, Forever Manchester, in order to form a fund. The Bright Futures Fund will support Charity, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector organisations running projects that will improve the career and life opportunities of people in Greater Manchester, with an emphasis on young people. This could mean projects aimed at improving social mobility, developing skills and otherwise supporting people from a wide variety of backgrounds into or back into work and careers. Full details of the fund, worth over £100,000 per year for three years, will be announced soon.

“I am so proud of all the careers we’ve been able to support via The Academy,” said Founder and Chair of The Juice Academy, Sandy Lindsay MBE. "We were only going to run the programme for two or three years while we helped plug the skills gap, but it’s always been essential and so we continued. I’m doubly delighted that, not only will The Academy, and its full team be transferring into the hands of our partner, Apprentify, which has ambitious plans to grow, but also that an additional legacy of its first ten years will be The Bright Futures Fund, which will help other organisations which share our passion for supporting people to be whomever they wish to be via careers they love.”

Apprentify Group, which consists of Apprentify, Netcom Training and Upskilla, have acquired the Juice Academy as part of their own ambitious growth plans, which will see them take over new offices and expand their workforce to meet the growing demand for their Ofsted Outstanding rated courses.

Apprentify CEO, Jonathan Fitchew, commented: ‘The Juice Academy has been a huge part of our first five years of business and, as an ambitious, fast-growing training organisation, we are growing organically and via acquisition. The Juice Academy and Apprentify teams have closely aligned shared values and we are very confident that we will be perfectly placed to continue to nurture the much-respected brand and offer its popular USP to other employers and sectors.’ 

The Juice Academy in its original form – with Tangerine practitioners and special guest lecturers doing the training on the Content Producer Level 3 Standard – will continue for a minimum of three years. If any other organisations are keen to explore introducing apprentices into their sector, with support from The Academy team, they can contact info@juiceacademy.co.uk.