#Loeries2023: Inaugural Loeries High Schools Programme - Setting the foundation of the industry
The Loeries is much more than a week of events and two awards evenings, it is a programme that runs all year and works for the sustainability and development of the industry.
And it starts with young people.
Young Creative of the Year
The most recognisable of these is the Young Creative of The Year Award.
This year's recipient, Bernice Puleng Mosala is a copywriter at Joe Public United and joins her fellow Joe Public colleague, Raphael Kuppasamy, an art director, who was the 2022 Young Creative of the Year.
Earlier this year, the duo won the Young Lions gold at Cannes this year, showing the great talent that is coming through the ranks of the industry.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg and underneath this is the dream of a young person that started many years ago. As Mosala says, “I have dreamt of this moment since university when I first found out about the Award."
Loeries Student Awards
This dream can start with the Loeries Student Awards which recognise young people studying in the creative fields at creative schools across the country.
But the industry needs this dream to start sooner than this. These young people are the lifeblood of the industry – in an industry that is not always popular with parents, where the perception is often that art is not a career, or the creative industries don’t pay. Even young people today are not as inclined to join an industry with a reputation for long hours and no life.
Many parents and their children are also unaware of the creative industries and the opportunities it can provide. Hence the Loeries Creative Future Scholarship.
Loeries Creative Future Scholarship
Started in 2008, this grabs matriculants while they are still at school and assists them with full-time bursaries to study in the brand communications field. To date, 19 students completed their degrees and successfully embarked on careers in agencies across South Africa.
But to do this, they need to be aware of the programme. This year, for the first time ever, the Loeries Creative Week included a high school programme, where learners would learn and be exposed to the industry and be encouraged to apply for the programme.
Loeries High Schools Day
The inaugural event hosted 50 learners from schools in the Western Cape for the day at Creative Week. The learners were introduced to the world of brand communications by a panel who led and facilitated the activities. The day also included a practical group exercise where the learners had to develop a brand case study.
The panel included Touch South Africa’s cofounder Robyn Phillips. Touch SA works to transition young creatives in Africa into the creative industry and to foster skills development.
Also, a member of the panel is Yanis Sookloll, CEO, FCB Cread Mauritius as well as Nix Winterburn, a student from the Red & Yellow Creative School of Business and a Loeries Creative Future Scholarship recipient.
Sookloll says that initially, the learners were quite reserved. “It took them a while but once they got going the engagement was great.”
Phillips says that this generation is smart and very in touch with who they are. “This is the next generation of storytellers and creatives of the industry, and they are very smart.”
Both say that it is programmes like the Loeries Schools Day and its bursary programme that bring these learners closer to achieving their dreams.
Phillips and Sooklall believe that the day achieved this. “Each of them has big dreams and it feels like they left today a bit closer to that dream,” says Phillips.
“All these students need is someone to tell them that they believe in them and in their generation,” adds Sooklall.
For 2023 the Loeries has four new scholarships available for the 2024 intake.
The learners also toured the Student Expo at Creative Week which features final-year students from all schools across South Africa. All the work has QR code which when scanned takes the viewer to the student’s full portfolio of work.
Youth Committee
The Loeries also has a Youth Committee, which comprises young professionals, aged under 30, from the brand communications industry, the LYC was first set up in 2021 with the aim of giving young professionals a voice that can resonate across the industry.
- Official site: www.loeries.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
- More info: Loeries Creative Week, Bizcommunity search, Google, Twitter
About Danette Breitenbach
Danette Breitenbach is a marketing & media editor at Bizcommunity.com. Previously she freelanced in the marketing and media sector, including for Bizcommunity. She was editor and publisher of AdVantage, the publication that served the marketing, media and advertising industry in southern Africa. She has worked extensively in print media, mainly B2B. She has a Masters in Financial Journalism from Wits.
