A TEENAGER has seen off competition from hundreds of fellow applicants to snap up his first job after leaving school.

Jordan Rudge, aged 18, has landed a place with The Juice Academy, the UK’s first employer-led social media apprenticeship programme, based in Manchester.

The Academy – which was launched to increase youth employment and fill an industry-wide skills gap by training young professionals in the practical application of social media - opened its doors to its first cohort of apprentices in July.

The year-long course – which is being run by Tangerine PR, a multi award-winning PR agency - will include a mixture of theoretical and work-place learning, covering all elements of social media management.

As his practical part of the course, Jordan is now working for Totepool.com to gain vital ‘on the job’ experience.

Totepool.com is one of the UK’s largest online gaming companies, and is synonymous with pool betting and horse racing. Attracting over 14,000 visitors every day it also provides sports adds alongside casino and arcade games.

Jordan said: “I live and breathe social media, so it made perfect sense to use these skills as a platform for my career. Being chosen as Totepool’s apprentice is a real honour and I’m enjoying every minute of being in the office.

“The Academy training has been really insightful and it’s been great to put this into practice in a real-life work situation. I chose not to go to university as I was raring to get going with my career now, so the apprenticeship was the perfect place to start.”