Some of advertising’s forward thinkers debate the future educational needs of the advertising industry at the Macleay College advertising advisory panel.

As part of Macleay College’s ongoing commitment to industry consultation, it recently convened one of it’s regular advertising advisory panels to discuss the future of advertising education and how this can best meet the needs of a dynamic and ever-changing industry.

The panelists included:

Andrew Barnum, Creative Principal at Barnum Group

Linda Anderson, Professional Development Officer, The Communications Council

Matthew Delprado, Creative Director, Lowe Profero

Dr. Jane Hession, Head of Business, Macleay College

Sophie Madden, Chief Executive Officer, Media Federation Australia

Aaron Michie, Chief Innovation Officer, ZenithOptimedia

Gaye Steel, Marketing Director, Guihen Jones

Andy Wright, Managing Director at For the People

Advertising program leader Ian Thomson commented “At Macleay we want to position ourselves at the leading edge of the advertising industry and be offering graduates with highly relevant qualities and skills. That’s we invited some of the industry’s forward thinkers to develop some educational strategies around what the needs of the industry will be in the next 5-10 years and beyond.”

Macleay College is looking at further developing its advertising course with specialisations in social media, creative, account management, media planning and digital production– to offer the industry more highly trained advertising professionals.

A focus of the panel discussion was the development in the digital and social space, and the need for graduates to be multi-skilled. “People who can think outside the conventional problem solving paradigms and who work comfortably with technology and closer with consumers will be the creative teams of the future” added Any Wright. “It is clear that advertising graduates also need a good level of training over an ever increasing base of technical skills” said Michie.

“And the new spirit of entrepreneurship in advertising also needs to be encouraged” mentioned Gaye Steel. “Currently the biggest gap in the industry if the lack of client focus. We need to focus more on the users (clients and consumers) and be less introspective in terms of agency culture” added Wright.

Education specialist Andrew Barnum commented “In addition to training and application, graduates need to develop analytical skills for creating arguments in order to solve problems. Hence developing a culture of change and curiosity”.

Macleay College welcomes those interested in studying the Diploma of Advertising to it’s trimester 1 intake. Classes start on the 2 February 2015. For further news and updates check out the newly launched student blog, www.adbare.com