Cranfield University visit.

In February ESOMAR organised a visit to Cranfield Business School, to talk to students not just about what the industry has to offer in terms of careers but also how it can help them as business men and women of the future.

By chance two of the talks, one from Jim Mott at Bamm and another from Christene McCauley and Hazel Barkworth at Diageo and Added Value, focused on the power of ethnography.  I was particularly interested in the subtle and powerful way ethnography had been used to help shift Diageo’s advertising focus, so that it now takes into account women’s’ role in society and how that impacts the best way to communicate to both sexes.  Meanwhile Darja Germane demonstrated the international scope of both research/insight and Costa Coffee!

I presented the infographic attached. 

Commissioned by ESOMAR to show the huge diversity of career paths within the industry now.  The Data career options were strongly represented by Jane Cristian from Mediacom.  Who made it clear which part of the industry offers rapid career progression and high salaries.

Attended by more than 60 students from around the world, there were a lot of questions and I believe we really spiked interest in the industry.  We certainly showed we are a dynamic and diverse industry offering a huge range of opportunities to anyone that has an investigative nature.

National Apprenticeship Week

Agencies in the Data, Insight and Market Research industry talk a lot about graduate recruitment.  However the study we did with the MRS and ESOMAR showed there are a lot of employers that would like us as an industry to be doing more to support the recruitment of apprenticeships.  Some roles in our industry, need employees with practical and technical skills, who will roll their sleeves up, ensure that projects are done in a timely and accurate manner, with a keen eye for detail. A university education isn’t necessary.

To encourage companies to employ apprenticeships, all companies with a salary bill of £3 million or more annually will be charged a levy of 0.5% of the salary cost, from April 2017.  You can offset the levy with a fixed allowance of £15,000 towards apprenticeship costs if you are training apprentices.  Isn’t it time UK agencies started to do more?

link: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/business-and-economy/apprenticeships/apprenticeships-enquiry-form?source=vanityurl