New advertising academy to improve professionalism

The Academy launched officially yesterday, Tuesday, 25 April 2006, in Johannesburg, and aims to be a world class training and development programme that captures the uniqueness of Africa whilst providing a very robust engine for industry transformation. It will strive to enforce the highest standards and improve professionalism of an industry that has waning credibility.

World class

Targeted at people already in the industry, the academy will expose learners to a well planned, well structured training programme with high quality multi-disciplined and practical courses, to meet the developing needs of advertising agency staff as they progress in their careers over time. While the initial focus of the AAC is on the South African industry, Zandile Nzalo, ACA chief executive, said they will later target the rest of Africa, ''and offer world class training in marketing communications that enjoys the respect of both general business and academic communities''.

The Academy is a culmination of a process that started in 2004 when the Future of the Advertising Industry (FOI) committee of the ACA commissioned research to assess the image of the industry as well as attitudes and perceptions of clients and industry opinion makers.

Some of the key findings were that:

• Clients perceive advertising agency staff to be unprofessional, and generally lack training and formal education within the industry.
• Advertising agencies are not perceived as business partners and lack understanding of clients' markets, products and business dynamics.
• In response to the needs of the industry, the AAC's five level training programme will address these issues by offering training targeting from junior level, and ultimately to senior management through an executive development programme that focuses on business management and administration, specific to the advertising and communications industry.

Nzalo said the AAC has signed on the cream of industry experts and reputable academics from AAA School of Advertising.

The ACA has appointed Alexia Georgiou as the AAC's academy manager, who has commenced the enrolment process, engaging with HR divisions of advertising agencies to present the different training levels and encourage agencies to conduct skills gap analyses and enroll their personnel to programmes most appropriate for their needs. The duration for each complete training level is two years, and the cost is charged per module varying from R1000 - R2000, for paid up ACA members. The closing date for enrolment is 22 May and classes commence on 29 May 2006.

New manager

Georgiou is a BA graduate with a Higher Diploma in Education and an experienced educator who received three merit awards for excellence during her nine years as a senior secondary educator. She left teaching to join an NGO whose focus was Educational Management Training. She then began a journey of training management skills, focusing in the area of Educational Management, Life skills, and interpersonal skills. Her passion for reading and research into the area of Personal Development, Leadership and Management eventually drew into consulting and contracting for different organizations in the corporate and educational world.

Working as a consultant, she cultivated a range of diverse skills which included project management, development of materials, training trainers and managing people. Most recently she worked for the Denel Centre for Learning and Development as the Head of School: Leadership, Management and Marketing. Her roles included setting up the school and selecting the programmes required for further training and development. In her new role as Academy Manager she will call on the diversity of her skills to manage and forge ahead within the exciting industry of advertising.