TRAINING – particularly in-house, among agencies, and of people newly starting in the profession – has been set as a key target during Claire Wood’s tenure as Scotland chair of the advertising representative body, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.
Earlier this evening, Wood – a planning director at Edinburgh-based Newhaven Agency – marked her inauguration as the first woman to be named Scotland chair of the IPA by arguing that training is vital to attract and retain talent in Scotland.
She also said that that Scots ad agencies need to get to grips more with digital technology, to make them more competitive.
Said Wood: “We need to think about how we are structuring our agencies to make sure recruits are getting a career path that keeps them interested and training that allows them to further themselves.”
Her tenure as Scotland chair last two years. She added: “The first step is easy. Practice what we preach. We can hardly lecture clients on how to talk to their audiences on Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+ if we are not very familiar with it ourselves. In Scotland, we are already thinking about it from an IPA standpoint. We have set up a digital forum with representatives across member agencies with a remit to evangelise about all things digital.”
She said that digital media accounts for more than 40,000 jobs in Scotland – making up 65 per cent of the country’s creative industry.
Among her plans, members of IPA Scotland are to be offered training events hosted by Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
Pic: David Murray.
