by Herman Manson (@marklives) Advertising school Red & Yellow has launched the Red & Yellow Springboard Marketing Institute (RYSMI) in a bid to attract a more diverse skills pool for the advertising and marketing industries. The initiative offers students a National Certificate Of Advertising, accredited as a Level 5 qualification in the National Qualification Framework (NQF).
The institute hopes to address issues that currently turn youngsters away from a career in advertising and marketing, such as the affordability of further education (the course is funded via industry SETA), juggling work and learning and access to paid internships. The certificate entails six months of structured learning and six months of practical work experience at participating agencies and marketers.
MarkLives spoke with Sharon Warroll, who heads up the Springboard initiative at Red & Yellow, about the programme.
Tell us about the major barriers of entry you have identified to youngsters entering the advertising and marketing industry and how are they being addressed by this initiative?
Sharon Warrol: A barrier that we are seeing is that ad agencies are looking for graduates rather than candidates that are fresh out of school. In most cases, agencies tend to employ graduates as interns as they are not at all focused on the career paths of school leavers. The Red & Yellow Springboard Institute (RYSBI) is providing school leavers with a learning experience that fills the education divide that currently exists between school leavers and graduates.
Advertising is not seen as a common career choice within the broader community and we see students rather opting for careers in teaching, tourism, medical etc… which appear to be more tangible and easily understood among these communities. These types of careers also seem to be more familiar, as teachers, nurses and doctors form integral roles within the lifestyles of these communities. The roles of a marketing manager or advertising executive, however, are far less noticed and in most cases are not fully understood as viable career options.
What are the criteria new students to your programme need to meet?
SW: They will need to have matriculated with some form of further education or training in terms of a certified qualification or relevant work experience. Qualifying students are generally 20 years and older.
How are you reaching potential students and how are you encouraging them to participate in this programme?
SW: We use third party providers to prescreen unemployed graduate profiles. GAP is an online platform run by Fetula allowing graduates to post their CVs online through their dedicated graduate programme. This graduate programme is called Graduate Asset Programme (GAP) and is aimed at helping to solve South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis.
We have also used Dreamworker, an NGO focused on assisting the unemployed, where they screen the CVs of young people seeking employment.
After the prescreening process, selected individuals get invited to a panel interview, where they will receive a presentation introducing them to the industry, which is then followed by an Idols-type panel interview. The panel comprises HR, recruitment and agency professionals. After the panel interview, the students are expected to give a presentation to the panel. Following this phase, 49 students are selected to complete the first formal Certificate of Advertising learnership.
How is the programme being funded?
SW: MICT Seta funds it.
What are the skills students can expect to leave with at the end of the structured classroom learning part of their training?
SW:Credited learners will be capable of:
- Taking and constructing briefs,
- Compiling a business and marketing plan
- Creating and presenting a creative concept
- Writing and disseminating a press release
- Understanding integrated marketing communication
- Constructing and planning business presentations
- Planning and organising an event
- Project management
- Using basic computer programmes such as Word and Excel, as well as Google Analytics.
The students will also experience working in campaign groups ie groups of eight will be pulled together where each group will comprise a copy student, art direction student, strategic planner etc… Each group will then be tasked with running a campaign together.
Who is participating in the practical on-the-job training part of this qualification?
SW: We have various lecturers, who are generally industry professionals, as well as individuals from some of our sponsoring companies who are taking on students as interns.
How many students currently participate in this programme and what are the objectives in terms of numbers of young people you plan to send into the industry?
SW: We have 49 students currently on the programme. We are in the pilot phase of this initiative and will have a better idea of student numbers being integrated into the industry as we move along.
There are several programmes running which attempts to address issues around transformation and socio-economic diversity in the ad industry. Do you believe there is a role for all of them and would it not make sense to collaborate on a broader level with those initiatives as well?
SW: Yes, absolutely. If there are other programmes out there, we would love to collaborate with them.
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