Turning a creative flair into a budding career with digital and design skills. Meet Ylenia.
English graduate Ylenia doesn’t do things by halves when it comes to learning. When she turned to ICE Malta to boost her digital skills and become industry-ready, she enrolled for not one, but two courses simultaneously. Her hard work paid off when she unlocked an industry internship and then a senior marketing role, transforming her career in less than a year. This is her story.
After I completed my BA in English, I was working as a freelance content writer for magazines and newspapers; I knew that despite my academic background, having experience or qualifications in marketing would help me find more opportunities across different industries. I was familiar with the Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing and had heard very good things about ICE Malta so I was excited to enrol!
What really stood out for me about ICE Malta was that they truly lead by example. Everything about the brand styling, design, and marketing is extremely high quality and demonstrates that if you’re looking for a place to learn digital marketing, you know you’re in safe hands! Even the online live learning format and digitisation of study content shows that the school is committed to staying relevant in the industry.
Thanks to my participation in the Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing, I managed to land a student internship in Communications with the MFSA. I was delighted by how quickly ICE Malta opened doors for me in my career and decided to make the most of my time as an intern to keep gaining industry skills!
I actually run a small independent jewellery business and have always been creatively-inclined so I was naturally pulled towards the Graphic Designer Associate course. It was a great fit with the diploma, allowing me to fulfil my artistic interests whilst equipping me with tools and techniques I knew I’d be able to use in the digital world.
It would have been impossible without the flexibility and ease of learning online. It was definitely a challenge managing two courses alongside day-to-day work but it was amazing to feel like I was making so much progress in a matter of months.
For me, opting for the industry-training route with ICE Malta instead of starting a Masters was definitely the right choice! The courses place more emphasis on practical, hands-on skills rather than theoretical training so you feel fully prepared for actual industry work.
When I started studying at ICE I thought I wanted to pursue editorial and magazine work, but my learning journey actually took me in a different direction. I was in a great position to start practising my new skills during my internship and as it turned out, this led to me landing a full-time role as Senior Communications Executive with INDIS Malta. I definitely couldn’t have landed this job without ICE Malta; it was a big step up in terms of seniority from my internship, but my skills training evidently gave me a boost in the eyes of my boss!
Combining all aspects of creativity into one job is something I didn’t think existed. My new role is very broad as I work on internal and external communication for the company, which of course includes a lot of digital marketing. This means I really have the space to apply everything I’ve learned, from the technical, strategic side of campaigns right through to design and content creation, and I love having this new challenge. I’m constantly busy but it’s great to be trusted with a role this crucial to a company and to have such freedom with my ideas!
I’m very excited to see what I’ll learn and experience in this role and my ambition is to become better and better along the way. I know that success in marketing depends on continuous learning and being well-rounded so I’d definitely like to fill in some more of my technical and strategic skill gaps. Coding, web optimisation and development are at the top of my list, but I’m also intrigued by UX design and have a feeling it would really support my work too!
I couldn’t have landed this job without ICE Malta; it was a big step up in terms of seniority from my internship, but my skills training evidently gave me a boost.
YLENIA ATTARDSenior Communications Executive
