Digital Fail: The gaping void in digital training is failing our industry
In this guest post, Amnesia Razorfish’s Iain McDonald warns that the industry has fallen badly behind on digital training.
Before I get accused of trolling with that headline, I’ll state what I think is obvious: The current education system isn’t producing or nurturing enough ‘digitally skilled’ individuals to sustain a growing a digital economy.
The landscape is shifting faster than the industry itself can train new people or re-educate existing staff. “Learn as you go” has become the norm for many which is especially evident in social media circles. It’s an issue that is going to get worse because digital growth and pace of change is still accelerating.
I doubt there is an agency in town who hasn’t struggled at times to find genuinely experienced digital staff, especially in niche disciplines like search and analytics. Look deeper and you’ll find digital staff wondering where their next training session is coming from.
At Amnesia Razorfish we’re no exception to the issues in finding great staff. Our own solution to finding people becomes evident by listening to the wildly varying accents in our office: Yes a substantial portion of our talent has been imported. This is not by design but all too often we simply have no option to look beyond local shores. This is not to say there’s not incredible Australian talent here, it’s just that there’s simply not enough of it to go around.
It is not uncommon for businesses to plug the gap with ‘less qualified candidates’ in digital positions with the hope that they will step up to the challenge and learn the job as they go. There’s nothing wrong with that if it works but on the flipside it can be highly unpleasant for both employee and employer if it doesn’t. There is certainly emphasis on the employer to provide external training and education if they are not resourced as a business to give it internally.
The billion dollar question:
With the NBN coming (depending on who gets elected), digital economy booming, rise of mobile, gaming, social and amazing new consumer technology on the horizon driving further adoption… Who will do the educating at grass roots and how do existing employees get ‘re-educated’?
I don’t want to knock anyone here who is currently involved in digital training in Aus – they are doing the best they can with what is provided.
Australia has some excellent short digital courses eg: AdSchool and many world class digital mentors like Heather Albrecht and Jenny Williams.
Unfortunately short courses are not enough and the industry lacks anything close to having a mature full time breeding ground for digital talent that is affordable and scalable. The unis are starting to integrate greater elements of digital in their courses but at the moment they feel more like ‘digital snacks’ than the ‘all you can eat buffet’ training we need that caters directly to our industry.
Sweden is home to one of the world’s first and most respected ‘digital only’ educational institutes; ‘Hyper Island’ which also offers a two year university course.
The trigger for me writing this article is that they are coming to Australia in September for a three day masterclass. (It’s not a cheap three days)
I have directly employed several Hyper Island graduates over the last few years and the quality of output has been exceptional. Listening to people who have trained there and explain how the school works, how hard it is to get a place, the detail and length of the courses it becomes easy to see that we don’t have anything quite like it at the moment.
Unfortunately I think there has been a lack of vision with regards to this within recent Governments –whilst all parties seem to realise the digital economy is important, the physical cabling is only part of the infrastructure we need to be on top of the world – we also need a digital workforce. It should be noted that the Swedish government helped fund the Hyper Island setup.
I’m jealous of Sweden’s Hyper Island. I think we need one (or something like it) in Australia as soon as possible.
- Iain McDonald is the Founder and ECD of Amnesia Razorfish
Australia does need something like Hyper Island. I was excited to read that their three-day short course was coming to our fair shores and readied to sign-up once registrations opened. I was however floored when I discovered it was $6000 for the course. As much as I want to attend and as much as I can see what benefits could come from the course, it is unfortunately not viable and there is no chance of my employer paying the fee.
As a traditional PR consultant with a strong interest in the digital world and aspirations to “cross over” it is hard to find training courses that are relevant and reliable. That is, courses that aren’t another 60 power point slides about Twitter and Facebook as a digital strategy.
Until then I will continue learning what I can from my own research and talking with those already doing digital well.
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@L thanks and I think that’s part of the big issue. Great digital training needs to be accessible to the wider audience and that means being affordable too. That comes more easily when you have scale and the added benefit of a government subsidising it!
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The reason this isn’t happening is because the industry does not have a voice lobbying the government to make it so.
AIMIA seems to be plugging a digital course every other week either on its own behalf or for its friends. It seems like a big profit centre. It’s certainly not an incentive for AIMIA to lobby for a government funded university type digital institution.
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It’s interesting to see that there is no lack of client-side folk attending digital training courses (disclosure – i run digital marketing courses for ADMA) – and yet often very few agency side people. Sometimes it seems to be a bit of “chicken and egg” stuff going on – i know that the education sides of associations like TCC and ADMA have had to cancel numerous “digital skills based” courses like digital project management etc, that were aimed at agency people due to lack of sign-ups. I think there needs to be a change in perspective from agencies, and a willingness to invest in their staff – not expect them to arrive fully skilled, and the only training they ever receive is “on the job”.
I absolutely agree with you that we need to raise the bar on digital education, especially at a grad / uni level, but agencies need to also take advantage of the training and skills improvement opportunities that are on offer – something our clients seem to have grasped and is part of the reason more and more digital capability is moving internally.
There is a good reason that most digital training in Australia is at an entry level, and that’s because most training organisations have tried to offer higher level courses and failed to get the take-up.
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Agree with you Iain. In my experience (non-digital agencies) there is still a “fear” and lack of understanding about what digital means. The more conversations started, like this one, the more progress will be achieved.
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I agree we need more training but do not agree on Hyper Island being the model to work from.
You have been lucky Iain the students from HI that we have encountered have not have the depth of knowledge and skill we’ve seen from other less “flashy” schools.
We also have found our most talented juniors (now seniors and mid weights) from local schools in Wagga Wagga, Tasmainia and low flying TAFEs. The problem we found with local schools is the promotion of their students is lacking.
Hyper Island is fantastic at promoting its students, where as other schools fail on this part.
How did your open day at the studio go Iain? This would have attracted a lot of eager students and brought the eager ones out of the woodwork.
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Good post and a big issue that will most likely threaten future digital growth and output once the momentum of being an emerging channel wears off.
Any industry training costing more than $500 a day/session really isn’t offering value for money – when you consider how much knowledge retention occurs after 8 hours.
For the digital industry to keep growing, two things need to happen:
a) more smart senior industry folks (not the other types) need to start teaching or start part time ad school courses at reasonable prices.
b) agencies to give time for their staff to attend training courses as part of their induction or career growth/promotions (or pay staff to attend on weekends).
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I agree there needs to be more focus on digital training – I know first hand at being forced to learn on the job and finding my own means of upskilling myself because my employer (a large advertising agency at that), didn’t have the ‘budget’ to send me off to a course.
It’s nice to see agency heads on here actually interested in investing in people – it’s a change from what a lot of us are used to.
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Just to explain what Ash is referring to with Open Studio:
http://amnesiablog.wordpress.c.....udio-2009/
@ Ash. Good point but for me Open Studio only served to reinforce my opinion that Australia is missing a dedicated education institution for digital. I never said there wasn’t talent coming out of local schools etc it’s just not producing the amount of talent required to serve the number of agencies now needing digital skills. In addition we saw many attendees were mature students or even agency people wanting to get into digital who just can’t find a course to go on. Hell I wish there were some courses I could send our people on instead of training people on the job all the time.
FYI We have never hired directly from Open Studio. It’s just an initiative from our creative team and they run it to put something back to the community. Using it to hire people would leave it feeling somewhat contrived!
@MikeZ @SamG …Agree. 🙂
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(This is probably a tl;dr moment. They’re a speciality of mine)
Let’s not confuse the issue by throwing the NBN into the mix. This is an education issue, not an infrastructure one.
To an outsider like me, there seems to be two types of roles in digital: traditional technical work like coding and design and the ephemeral black art roles like SEO or policy/strategy big picture opportunities.
When it comes to technical work, training is well covered from the Cert II level right through to post-grad. Anyone who wants to get into this aspect has a clear path to follow as soon as the leave school, and anyone who might want to shift into that path knows exactly what they need to do to compete and what skills gaps they need to plug up. This holds to a large extent with design, development, PR and communications. These have all been around a long time and have developed mature educational frameworks.
If the industry is crying out for training for search, analytics, strategy or other black art roles, it’s up to the industry to provide it. It’s not the Government’s role to step in and start telling industry what should and shouldn’t be taught. We have an Australian Quality Training Framework for a reason.
If the current offerings aren’t meeting the needs of the industry, surely it is up to industry to band together and start devoting the resources and developing the materials for Registered Training Organisations to deliver? Is industry exploring partnerships with RTOs to deliver the training it wants staff to have? Governments shouldn’t be speculating and “picking winners”. Industry should be presenting an argument too compelling to ignore that support is required.
As someone who attempted to make a career transition to digital when moving to Sydney at the start of last year and failed miserably (for any number of reasons), I agree that a lack of formal frameworks works against the digital industry. The soft skill positions require certain levels of experience but without a formal framework to map skills across industries and without some sort of Recognition of Prior Learning regime, people on the outside find it very difficult to know where they stand and where their existing skills might be used most appropriately. I know that formal qualifications can be something of an anathema in creative fields, but if it broadens the field of potential recruits that can only help to keep new blood and fresh thinking in an industry that is often accused of being insular and an echo chamber.
Iain, you’ve made the first step in articulating that there are skills gaps in digital that aren’t being addressed by the current market. It’s now up to industry to start providing answers. No one else can do it for you.
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The article mentions: Sweden is home to one of the world’s first and most respected ‘digital only’ educational institutes; ‘Hyper Island’ which also offers a two year university course. What’s the name of the other one besides Hyper Island?
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I have put a number of staff here at Sound Alliance and also at Maxus through Brendan Cropper’s Digital Training course and the feedback has been always positive … Patty Keegan also does courses and they’re reportedly excellent. Keep in mind these aren’t really ‘technical’ courses – more aimed at giving potential entry level agency and publisher prospects the right leg up.
I looked into Hyper Island for myself but was thrown by the $6000 price tag. My HECS debt after 4 years of uni was $14k so $6k for 3 days seemed a touch excessive. Am sure it’s great but can’t justify the expense no matter how hard I looked.
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@Shane I’m not disagreeing with you in that the industry needs to do more here but I do believe this issue affects more than just the ad and marketing industry. For instance Social media skills will be required in almost every client facing business in the future. Thats potentially thousands of people needed for jobs that don’t exist yet just in social media.
My reference to the NBN was really to point out that the digital age is just beginning. ie; You build a big road, you get more cars, you need people to service the cars etc.
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I manage a client-side marketing team and recently put work on our social strategy out to tender (with considerable budget attached). After pitches from six agencies, we ended walking away with no-one. We’re lucky enough to be a part of a bigger global organisation based out of the states and will now look internally for the expertise to do what we put out to tender, but what a sad state of affairs when no-one could demonstrate the right complexity of understanding to win our business. That being said, it doesn’t take too many conversations with our US counterparts to realise how advanced they are and how far behind we are falling. Very concerning indeed.
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Hi Iain,
The reality is that there is a huge gap in digital training which I’m fulfilling through VentureOne and my JV with AIMIA. If you allow me to blow my own trumpet, the courses and training can be found at http://www.aimia.com.au/home/events.
I have run Digital Project Management, together with probably one of the best trainers in the country, Vishy Narayanan. In this series we have just done Advanced DPM, and will shortly launch Value Based Costing, and also a cross platform course. There are a number of different training ideas I have and II’m currently looking for specialists to run them including Business Development, Traffic and Studio Management
Also have just launched the 3rd annual Commerclalising Video seminar with AIMIA, which as the name suggests, is about monetising video & video advertising – details here http://bit.ly/awPDuq
AIMIA also runs its own 2 hour forums which are very well attended, and also has an intern scheme through a variety of universities and tertiary institutions.
It’s great that you bring this topic up – and I’d love to chat more about this offline.
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@eunmac As an intellectual curiosity, I’d be interested if you have any hard data about the number of client-facing businesses now that have qualified (as compared to experienced) staff in traditional customer relation/relationship management roles? Off the top of my head, I would intuit not many. However, many people have spent large parts of their early working careers in customer management roles (particularly in hospitality – working in Maccas or behind a bar is almost a rite of passage) and are exposed to the principles and practice from early on in their working lives.
I don’t need to tell you of all people that social media is new. I would wager that over the coming years we will see more people growing up in and around social media (and whatever the Next Big Thing is after that) that will instinctively have a strong understanding of what’s required.
@Fat Paddler Why do you think the US is so far ahead of AU? Are there more training and higher education options in digital? Is it simply because companies and staff in the US are that much closer to the tech centres like Silicon Valley and are therefore exposed to new ideas earlier and more often?
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I should also mention that the training and seminars are very reasonably priced through AIMIA – probably underpriced given the quality of practical information and strategies provided.
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How did that joint venture with AIMIA come about, Claudia?
Was there an open tender?
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@Shane There is definitely greater innovation driven through incubator cultures like Silicon Valley, but the main point on the US market is (a) population/customer critical mass, and (b) enhanced competition. I always joke with some of my US counterparts, especially those in sales, that to make money in the US you just need to walk down the street and catch all the money people throw at you! But realistically, the prizes are great for the risk of investment, so companies are less risk adverse.
In terms of training and understanding – graduates in the US in my limited experience don’t seem to have additional hard skills for growth in digital, but they have been given the right strategic thinking. The ideas, business models and importantly, understanding of customer value propositions set them up for a quick development path.
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Thanks for bringing this up, Iain, it’s my favourite topic ; )
We’ve been quietly working away for the past 5 years, training “traditional” media professionals throughout Australia and NZ about digital media. As our backgrounds are in buying & selling media – that’s our focus, as opposed to design, or tech aspects of the business. There are still so many out there who need the “basics,” that that has been our bread and butter. In fact, we’ve put our foundational course online in an effort to scale for individual learners, as well as clients with many locations, so we can devote f2f training to more tailored content. Agree that the industry needs more “intermediate” and “advanced” courses, as well as courses for those who aren’t already in the ad industry.
Also agree that agencies are hard slather – those that invest in digital training for their staff are few and far between. Media owners, on the other hand, are hungry for it and they can see the results in their numbers. Clients are as well, but they’ll often tell you their agencies take care of their digital training. Chicken and egg scenario here?!
The comments about RTOs is interesting. We’re working on a response to an RFP now which requires developing our digital sales training content in alignment with client’s sales training RTO.
We’re getting more and more inquiries about social media courses, and have even been approached by someone who’s trying to build a social media “accreditation” course since there are so many cowboys and options out there.
Long-term there will need to be formal qualification for various roles within the industry. The current menu of training/conference/education options, and variance in terms of content quality, pricing, and resulting skillsets is not doing the industry any good if people like Shane, who want to get into the industry, end up “failing miserably.”
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As a staff member who is responsible for the digital marketing within a marketing & development non-for-profit, I can whole-heartedly agree with Iain, and add that when you are in a regional setting, it gets even harder!
My background is traditional marketing, and whilst I’ve taken a few short courses on things like SEO, web developments etc, my knowledge of analytics is pretty basic and it can be a struggle to inform marketing strategies without a higher level of this reporting.
I’m a fairly recent graduate, and the basic online-marketing we covered at uni really doesn’t cover what is required for this role, and neither would a straight tech-based IT degree I think we can safely assume – instead, many of the skills I’ve picked up have been self-taught or through collaboration with outside suppliers…
When you have to move to Sydney to get trained with skills that apply to activities every business needs to be on top of, that’s frustrating to say the least.
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Maybe Tim and the Mumbrella team can add an Education tab with a listing of short, medium and long term courses currently on offer in Australia?
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Note to anonymous re AIMIA. I’m definitely missing the impact of that big profit centre on the AIMIA P&L, primarily because we do events on a break-even basis as a member service (and they are all open to anyone, you just pay less if you’re a member)
AIMIA has a number of JV’s with people for training and events, largely because we don’t have the capacity to do everything ourselves, and if someone approaches us with a proposal that meets AIMIA member needs and we have the resources to support, we’re happy to consider it.
And yes we do help promote our friends’ events and training. ADMA, MFA, PANPA, the Comms Alliance. AANA, IIA and a variety of other industry bodies all cross promote each others training and education activities (and often offer the member discounts to each others members).
To add a more constructive level to the post, a major obstacle is that a lot of government education activity is at a State level, not Federal, and the level of interest in supporting (or even understanding) digital training varies widely. Victoria are particularly good and our lobbying efforts there have been reasonably successful. NSW is the opposite end of the spectrum and are really only starting to get their heads around the fact that a digital industry exists. Here at AIMIA we spent 2 years getting the NSW Govt to support hiring one person to run our digital industry internship scheme. That’s a lot of effort that left us wondering if there might have been something more beneficial we could have done with more immediate benefits for the industry. And now there’s a state election coming up in March….
I totally agree that the training and education issue is the biggest threat to the industry’s future and after 6 years of lobbying Governments on various issues I’m firmly convinced that it needs to be industry driven. As you can see from the various posts, there is actually a lot of training activity going on, particularly in digital advertising and marketing and related areas. But clearly not enough to meet the overall needs of the market and I’m totally in favour of hearing more ideas on what people think should be done.
Regarding RTO’s, watch this space, slowly….
John Butterworth, CEO
AIMIA
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Iain McDonald you are spot on!
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Since when did Hyper Island become a ‘university’?
The course they are offering in Australia is a short course for $6k…. not a ‘university’ course.
Please correct the misinformation or perhaps the digital world has moved so fast I’m already out of date.
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Try getting a multi-national CFO to sign off on staff training these days…
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I am loving the amount of talk on this topic, reality is that a lot of companies just don’t invest in specialised training (digital or not) which is a shame. Those with the initiative, personal drive (and let’s not forget, the spare coin!) pursue the training themselves. A rarity though I’m sure.
Hyper sounds amazing however as with some others, I’m currently typing from the floor at my reaction to the price tag.
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I’ve been involved on both sides of the coin here. As a digital marketer with 7 years experience post-uni (yes, not as many as some, more than others) I’ve been involved in running client -side and internal training sessions to teach about what we do, primarily, it must be said, to try and get them to understand online media and buy more.
Most digital knowledge is so specific and job related, that any industry-wide training schemes are inevitably of little use for people already knowledgeable in that specific area.
Let us not forget the valuable role that blogs (this one included) and conferences do to spark debate and learning online. Google and other industry firms do spend a lot of time on courses, web conferences and education (again, with the aim of getting you to spend more with them, sure, but the courses are there and fairly decent if you pick and choose the right ones).
As an aside, when I left my previous employ to join a start up, my visa (yes, I’m one of those Poms in media in Sydney – anyone met any others?) required that my new company agree to undertake training of all staff in a relevant area with a budget of several $’000.
My immigration consultant sent through a recommended course that had passed the nod from the immigration people and looked suitable, so would it be OK to attend?
I suggested it might be difficult, as I wouldn’t be there any more to run the training.
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Ian you are spot on.
Myself and another classmate of a Masters level digital university course in Australia are both about to leave for an exchange to international university courses in order to get further specialist education in our chosen fields not offered here in Australia.
We have to go overseas on exchange in order to pursue a better education.
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having recently completed the AFA training course and coming out of it no better than when I started there is a definate need to not only upskill those working in agencies, but also the bodies that ‘claim responsiblity’ for our industry.
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@patty
To be fair, my miserable failure was as much my own as the industry. Relocating interstate in the middle of the GFC was a brave move to begin with. I simply wasn’t prepared for the huge difference between my previous work in the public sector (with a history of project management, policy and relationship management) and a brand new industry. I also wasn’t prepared for how hard it would be to try and compare the transferrable skills I had to what was required in the industry. There were also realities of trying to pay the rent and being the primary income earner in the family that lead me to cut my losses and return back to the public sector.
It was an instructive experience for me though in the sense that many employers talk about respecting transferrable skills but when push comes to shove, more talk the talk than walk the walk. If you can’t directly map your skills, you’re going to be in for a hard time, and the lack of affordable training options exacerbates this.
But that’s all an off-topic aside (and if i keep going it’ll be another tl;dr)
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I absolutely agree. I think there is a gaping hole in the training available to people looking for a middle ground in digital – people who already understand the basics but don’t need to know the technical side. I recently completed AdSchool’s Digital Strategy course and while our lecturer did a great job trying to make the best out of severely outdated content, you couldn’t ignore the fact that while it was advertised as a strategy course, 95% of the content was around outlining the basics of the different channels.
For me, completing external digital training in Australia is more a way of confirming I’m on the right track through doing my own reading and research, rather than learning anything new. Considering digital courses are not cheap, with the AdSchool course over $1000 more expensive than most of the other courses, this is a lot of money to spend on making sure you’re on the right track.
Hyper Island was another let down. $6000 is just not feasible for 3 days and after being burnt by the quality of the AdSchool course, I can’t risk spending that much to get another “learn the basics” course. Which is so disappointing considering the reputation Hyper Island has.
Thanks to everyone that has shared good courses they have completed and if you have anymore suggestions for good middle ground/advanced, send them through.
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As someone who was on the other side of the table when John Butterworth was negotiating NSW government support for the AIMIA internship program, I’d agree with John that it’s up to industry to develop the training programs.
In such a fast evolving industry, if you wait for governments or tertiary institutions to see a need and then develop a response, then the opportunities will be missed and gaps in the workforce will only widen.
I’d also add our governments in all states and all levels really don’t see any of the “digital” industries as priority with mining, finance and even, believe it or not, manufacturing being higher up the tree.
We only have to see the way successive state and Federal governments have run IT policy and education as evidence of this.
In short, Iain, you’re going to have to lead the way on this, waiting for governments to do something will only see grass growing under your feet.
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As we all know just “keeping up” is a challenge given the exponential rate of technological innovation.
What’s required is less of “knowing how” and more an attitude towards change and innovation.
Following a recent clip we produced for an International Sports Marketing conference featuring digital media leaders from the US and Europe.
Some great key messages “less about technology” and more about personal attitude – “thriving” – which are applicable to any business in the digital age
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0pk2ZXxoo4
From a CLIVE perspective we’ve also had to develop a workshop to train online presenting ( ie unlike TV/ Theatre where the web is a 1:1, less than 1 meter engagement with website viewers)
http://www.clivevideo.com/Web-.....op-L1.html
What I find interesting is how the training will eventually be modulised (small chunks easier to digest) and that a large % of this content will be delivered online (client able to self pace/ consume anytime).
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You make a lot of good points however I think it’ s also incumbent on the industry to participate in the teaching and curriculum design process. This is a great post from Jamie Kosoy who teaches at Parsons in NY as well as working in the industry.
http://www.appliedartsmag.com/opinions.php?id=26
worth a read
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Christ on a crumpet – $6k for 3 days? That cannot be justified. I would have thought $3k was expensive but at $6k there are very few agencies, businesses or Gov departments who are going to let staff spend $6k on a three day course.
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I definately agree with the central argument that digital training could, and should, definately be scaled up.
The possibilities surrounding the NBN (or whatever our next step may be) make for a what could be a very interesting period of digital growth, and strengthening training, to me, is pivotal.
I do have a minor irk in regards to how valid Iain’s (read: Razorfish’s) merit can be for writing this article, however.
At the start of 2009, one of former colleagues, had been called for an initial discussion about a mid-weight Media role at Amnesia Razorfish.
When she was asked her expected salary, she was told it was around 4k above what they were intending, and that HR would not expand on this budget at all, so it was implied she should search elsewhere.
Knowing this, then reading the article today, it just sat a little off with me and I felt that it was a little contradictory to one of the points the article.
By that I mean – Could it also be possible that there are many capable, skilled applicants around – some Digital Agencies just aren’t willing to pay them for their experience? and then cry poor when a junior can’t fulfil the same skillset, for less?
Admittedly I’m many years detached from the grassroots level of the industry, but it would seem to me that if the central point is to get the skilled, quality staff that are out there – dangling the salary carrot is, and always has been, the way to get what you want.
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Basically, I agree with the talent need/gap and we at Holler do our best to partner up with academic institutions like Billy Blue’s Multimedia Design, UTS Visual Communication and U of Syd’s Interaction Design Course for example.
View from the US from Associate Technical Director at Big Spaceship, Jamie Kosoy who is teaching at Parsons, it all sounds very much the same:
http://www.appliedartsmag.com/opinions.php?id=26
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Those who can, do.
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haha love ya Pat, always loved your thoughts. You have done it mate. Built a nice biz. Just chill a bit on the juniors mate… you were one once – remember those days chipmunk?
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Did anyone even watch the YouTube clip? Hyper island is basically 2 years of on the job training; giving them clients, deadlines and letting them solve their own problems by learning from their mistakes…. Sound familiar…. Like your first 2 years at work? except at work you got paid. It seems to me that hyper island is endorsing on the job training as the best approach with time and resources set aside to facilitate strong mentoring of junior staff, focusing on supporting them when they make mistakes. I don’t think this pickle is unique to the digital space it might just be more visible because the underlying technology keeps changing and people are unable to consolidate their learnings by applying them to similar situations. The key out take I got from the video was provide a safe environment, trust and be there for them and they will teach themselves effectively. Sound completely transferrable to the work place to me.
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On the job training is the only way. I’m a digital producer in a mid sized agency and I did a PR degree. I’ve got 2 years experience and I’m just learning as I go. The only thing uni could have taught me was about how to use project management software to create documentation like timelines and functional specs. A uni cannot teach you how to handle the things thrown at you on a daily basis.
I think the agency I work at is exceptionally generous in looking at training courses, but $6k whoa. I’d rather get paid for on the job learning, than go to uni and do it.
Digital is what you make of it, everyone has a responsibility to learn and be better, and half the time we’re testing things out so you can’t always claim to be an expert, we’re always learning.
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I think the key issue here is without a strong increase in the knowlegebase online in all functions the market will continue to be beset with big shortages of staff .
One of the things that needs to happen to facitiate this is companies need to invest with internal or external training to bring people up to scratch and then offer the career development / work environment to retain them within the buisness .
Personally i dont think there is enough training in the Australian Media market across the board and lets face the fact that the biggest beneficiary of a well trained workforce is the company themselves.
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When your part of an investment strategy your future (training) is in the hands of bankers.
Our caution on the Euro agency space stems from a view that EPS momentum will disapoint, as wages & incentives rise into recovery. citibank report Feb 2010
Meanwhile your churning your digital staff at $40K (replacement) because the value of human assets is a 2nd thought.
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Great topic and haven’t had time to read through all the 45 comments but worth mentioning three developments:
1 AFTRS ran a Multi Platform Content Grad Certificate in the first half of this year that I designed and ran with guests from industry including Jennifer Wilson, Martin Walsh, Marshall Heald, Lisa Gray, Kelly Chapman and a host of other practitioners and is a good model of structured practical learning combined with industry experience – this was partly off the back of the 5 years I ran and directed the lamp.edu.au initiative too which was a highly evolved industry training model and participants included News, ABC, Channel 10/9, the top doco filmmakers as well as many upcoming digital independents (sadly AFTRS no longer encourage LAMP-like models)…
2 This model is also continuing now at MetroScreen on their Advanced Diploma in Multi Platform Production – which again I am lead lecturer on. With over 30 students already experienced linear film and agency people this is a great model too – again with industry specialists providing real experience into various aspects of the courses
3 Finally thinking more globally I and four other (industry head) founders in New York, LA, London and Toronto have launched global StoryLabs last week which is training and mentoring for new form transmedia digital storytelling with specialist labs in advertising, community, innovation, cross media and mobile media – you can find the launch site and press release here http://storylabs.us/press/2010-08-release/
Overall this is neither an industry OR academia problem it is coming up with models that utilise the best of both – structured courses are needed to keep focus and provide depth, possibility and breadth and industry elements and people injected to provide real world issues. I think the three examples I have highlighted above there are good local Australian examples.
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Disappointed that Gary only used “I” seven times in that posting. Please tell us more about yourself, Gary…
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HI Donovan – your right, how very self-deprecting of me 🙂 So to find out more about me go to http://www.personalizemedia.com/about-gary-2/ – there you go.
Now Donovan tell us more about yourself, please do…or even better respond to the ACTUAL content of my contribution vs the usual Mumbles anon crowd personal ‘slights’
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I tried reading all that, Gary. Blimey – you’ve got the longest bio I’ve ever seen.
You must be very important.
I take it all back.
(Please forgive me that I didn’t read it all – it was quite long).
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Oh yeah, and you asked me to respond to the actual content of your comment.
But that seems to be that you can think of three developments in digital training, and you’ve done them all.
What sort of response would you like? Some kind of big pat on the head?
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