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October 2007 - Strategy Magazine
Biz

HR's Catch 22: "A lot more doing and a lot less learning"

by Mary Dickie
page 15

Emerging channels. Diverse disciplines. Complicated programs.The roles of agencies and marketers are more challenging than ever, and a shortage of skilled professionals is looming. And as everyone tries to do more with less, training has fallen off the map. Is enough being done to attract, educate and hang on to talent? Strategy pulled together a roundtable of experts, moderated by executive editor Mary Maddever, to find out.

It's unanimous: there's a scary lack of training in marketing. To nip it in the bud, a group of industry members founded the Marketing Communications Education Trust in 2005 to raise funds for Canada's first chair in brand communication, as well as a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a concentration in brand communications, at Waterloo's Wilfrid Laurier University. MCET board member and roundtable panelist Brett Marchand says the plan has raised more than 70% of its $5-million goal. "The idea was to design a specific undergraduate program so students could be prepared for a marketing communication or agency career after their fourth year," he says. "Because there was really no program dedicated to those career paths."

Marchand, who is also the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA) executive committee chair, is excited about the master's program the organization is working on. The plan is to pilot it in fall 2008, although no post-secondary institution has been chosen yet.

"The idea is to take people who have experience in the industry and are looking at senior management roles, and give them the training that is needed at that level," he says. "How do you train people to be in leadership roles across all the communications disciplines? How do you train somebody to actually manage an organization? The goal is to offer that kind of program."

As well, the Toronto-based ICA offers members courses in print production, portfolio development, broadcast commercial production and the fundamentals of advertising, plus the Communications and Advertising Accredited Professional (CAAP) essential skills development program. And the Association of Canadian Advertisers offers a master's certificate in marketing communications management in cooperation with York University, plus strategic and branding courses in Toronto and Vancouver.

Still, there's clearly a need for more training to address current gaps, and some agencies are providing their own programs. The Cundari Group, for instance, has online tutorials for everything from chairing a meeting to making an effective presentation. There's also a mentoring program in which junior employees handle RFPs (under a certain budget threshold), giving them valuable experience and allowing managers to identify rising stars. Cossette provides no fewer than 35 courses on advertising and marketing skills, taught primarily by senior managers, in its Cossette Campus program. Cossette also fosters integrated thinking via the Sandbox, which puts creative people through various disciplines for three months, after which about half are hired and the other half, Marchand says, are plucked by other firms.

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