In the innovation economy, adaptability is the key quality advertising, marketing and media professionals will need to forge both the future, and their futures. But when traditional education is often based on imparting an established body of knowledge, how can we prepare young people for a career where the job roles they’ll undertake, and the technologies they’ll use to solve problems with, don’t even exist yet? The challenge for students, education providers and professional development training is to create a system of agile education in order to fill the current talent gap.
Unlike during the industrial revolution, careers are no longer determined by one technology alone. In fact, the hard-skills grads need to get their first job may only help to get the foot in the door.
At Macleay College’s industry advisory panel on the development of its new Digital Media degree, managing director at Tricky Jigsaw and group innovation director at M&C Saatchi, Ben Cooper, said: “We look for graduates that have passion, curiosity and specialism. This way we can help them grow knowing they have the rigour of focus but the openness to embrace the new.”
At the risk of getting all jargony, the notion of T-Skilling (having broad knowledge with one deep specialized skill) is being superseded by Pi- or Two-Pronged- Skilling, with two or more skill sets, and Diagonal-Skilling (where both knowledge and skills are developed exponentially).
As business and communications solutions become platform agnostic (as McCann’s animated music video, app, game, social media, print and billboard campaign 'Dumb Ways to Die' for Metro Trains proves), industry is demanding professionals who have a broad understanding of strategy, ideation, technology and management, and can integrate knowledge across disciplines and managerial functions.
The State of Digital Marketing Talent Report from The Online Marketing Institute suggests that “Companies are in need of solid, measurable, and accurate digital talent education. Programs are sorely needed but few are implementing formal team training programs.”
So how do we educate young people to be able to solve overarching problems, determine the optimal media solution, and not be limited to any one technology or platform?
The solution lies in developing educational and professional development programs that are agile, and can quickly adapt to developments in industry and rapid change in technology, while still providing strong foundation knowledge in conceptual thinking, reframing, problem solving and project management.
Schools and tertiary education providers need to be able to accommodate modules that respond to current industry and technological trends; There is also powerful potential in accredited education providers partnering with industry bodies in order to supplement foundation knowledge with current industry skill-sets; Industry itself can integrate on-site with off-site learning to help forge graduates that not only have the theoretical knowledge to become the thought leaders of tomorrow, but also the skill-sets to make them invaluable junior employees from day one in their post-uni jobs.
Government and industry currently recognise that there is a talent gap in the developing information, communications, technology & digital media industries. Deloitte’s recent Tech Trends Insights Report reminds us: “The legacy-skilled workforce is retiring, and organisations are scrambling for needed skills in the latest emerging disruptive technologies. To tackle these challenges, companies will likely need to cultivate a new species—the IT worker of the future—with habits, incentives, and skills that are inherently different from those in play today.”
And demand for graduates with information, communications and technology knowledge and skills is growing says Deloitte’s Access Economics report:"Employment in the ICT sector is expected to grow by 2.5% per year until 2020, higher than the economy as a whole at 1.6%. This equates to an increase from 600,000 workers today to 700,000 by the end of the decade." (Knott, 2015)
The challenge is for the education sector to respond by: developing programs and courses that deliver strategic problem solving skills that can be applied to not-yet-existing technologies; setting up partnerships with industry to promote up-to-date real-world learning; and have employers commit to a higher level of in-house training such as internships, graduate programs and employee upskilling.
The future is there to be taken, but only those courageous enough to step across the gap between the known and the unknown will be able to take advantage of what it holds.
By Ian Thomson
Head of the Media & Advertising Faculty for Macleay College