UK: The Industry Club launches apprentice scheme aimed at underrepresented groups to combat lack of diversity in creative sector
Leading provider of talent and training for creative industries, The Industry Club (TIC) has announced today the launch of its Marketing Debuts apprentice scheme targeted at 18 – 25 year olds within minority and low social mobility groups who might not consider marketing as a career and those looking to build one. adam&eveDDB are one of the first agencies to sign up to offer an apprenticeship starting from January 2021.
The scheme equips candidates with the skills needed to operate to post-pandemic ways of working. With over 12 years in talent solutions, TIC has developed Marketing Debuts with government-approved apprentice ‘standard’ into a highly relevant commercial programme created for disruptive times.
The Level 4 Marketing Debuts scheme will run in partnership with government-regulated apprentice provider The Opportunity Group.
Starting from January 2021, the 13-month programme consists of two unique and highly relevant commercial apprenticeships ‘Creative Project Management’ and ‘Social Media and Community Management’. Apprentice candidates can apply to Marketing Debuts through TIC website [link] by 19th October 2020.
Creative Project Management specialises in training managing creative projects in agencies or marketing departments. Learners could be placed in Project Management, Account Management, New Business or Production teams. The programme covers topics such as project scoping and risk mitigation, producing effective project documentation and evaluation, resource management and procurement and negotiation.
Social Media and Community Management specialises in successfully managing a brand’s social media channels and its communities. Candidates will acquire skills relevant for Social Media, Data and Community Management, PR and Crisis Management teams. The programme covers topics such as social media strategy, growing online communities, conflict management, social listening, neuro linguistic programming, data analysis and cybersecurity.
Training is provided through The Industry Club’s training arm, The Industry School. Trainers are industry experts who use real marketing case studies and practical methods to produce demonstrable ‘on the job’ skills.
Jemima Monies, Deputy MD, adam&eveDDB said: “We are thrilled to be participating in the inaugural Marketing Debuts programme. We strongly believe that supporting and developing the next generation of talent, who may have not previously considered advertising as a career or come from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, is vital to our future success, and we cannot wait to welcome some new faces into the agency soon.”
Melissa Smith Founder and Managing Director of The Industry Club said: “We’ve worked in the industry for many years, being our clients trusted talent partner, and we recognise we have a responsibility to ensure that every gender, age, race, religion and sexual orientation are all given opportunities to work in the creative sector. Businesses have radically changed how people work and post-pandemic skills and ways of working will be crucial to building business resilience. We’ve trained thousands of school leavers and this scheme brings together our expertise in recruitment and training bringing underrepresented groups to our industry and into key roles.”
Participating agencies or departments will be able to fund either a new learner or upskill a current employee into a creative role through the Apprenticeship Levy, a UK tax on employers that funds apprenticeship training.
Business that aren’t Apprenticeship Levy payers are still able to fully deliver funded programmes as the Government has created a levy donor programme where large companies can donate their unspent levy funds to smaller companies, which can be fully managed by The Opportunity Group.
Based in London, The Industry Club provides recruitment, executive search and training for the creative communications industry, with specialist consultants in the project management, account management, finance and resource management, creative and strategy/senior client service disciplines. Delivered through The Industry School, the company’s training and networking events include workshops, bespoke in-house training and breakfast briefings. The Industry Club is on LinkedIn and Twitter.
The Opportunity Group, is regulated by the government as an apprenticeship provider as well as supporting the employer in maximising funding opportunities either through levy drawdown themselves or levy transfer.