by Herman Manson (@marklives) Digify, a new project launched by Livity Africa in association with Google and the IAB, is helping to address both the digital-skills gap and lack of diversity in the supply of digital-savvy youngsters joining ad agencies and marketing departments.
Livity Africa is best known as the publishers of Live SA — a youth publishing initiative run as a social enterprise — that created opportunities for unemployed young people who wanted to enter the magazine industry. The project has now morphed from print to a digital-only platform but continues to train interns for the media industry.
Digify takes disadvantaged young people with a propensity for technology and trains them in digital marketing and advertising.
Pilot project
Google is funding the pilot project. The aim is two-fold — to get the kids’ paid internships after their three-month training course — and to help the ad industry address diversity issues and lack of digital skills in the workplace.
The first group of fifteen 18-to-25-year-olds tested the formula in a course that kicked off in Gauteng in June 2014 — and all of them have since been recruited into agencies, mostly digital-centric outfits.
The curriculum is responsive as the digital marketplace is forever changing. The idea is to train students in the most current and relevant digital skill sets. Ad agencies are involved in the delivery of the course, including setting out regular briefs for students as part of their training; this also allows them to scout for talent while giving the students early exposure to agency life.
Even presented to clients
In the first round of training, Quirk, Native VML, Net#work BBDO, Retroviral and 42 Engines have all been involved and, in certain cases, the students have even been allowed to present their ideas to clients in certain cases.
Digify aims to run in both Cape Town and Johannesburg three-to-four times a year, says founder, Gavin Weale. That means as many as 150-200 digital savvy youngsters will be pushed into the marketplace, hopefully all with paid internships to get them going.
While the initial focus has been on digital agencies in terms of recruitment, that is now expanding to all agencies plus marketing departments. Courses will also be expanded into streams for further learning and specialisation, including coding and video production.
Spark and determination
Students are recruited through Livity platforms such as Live SA and candidates need to have a passion for digital (so they must show that they have been using social media or been blogging, for example, as well as demonstrating spark and determination, to be taken into the programme). Candidates also need to be computer-literate and the project is focused on candidate needs (it’s not for those who can afford to study).
Since it aims to address diversity in the workplace, gender and race are obvious considerations.
Weale is impressed with the take-up form the industry so far — especially with the 100% placement rate the first body of students achieved. The media-internship initiative only placed about half of its graduates.
Significant interest
The project, Weale believes, is only scratching the surface in terms of where it can go and what it can achieve. Funding remains an issue, although there is significant interest in ensuring this skills-initiative continues.
With proof of concept now in place, Weale is certain Digify can effectively assist the industry in addressing two core issues it’s spent years and a lot of money talking about!
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