Tuition fees will cause marketing brain drain, says recruiter
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Brands are facing a marketing brain drain because of their insistence on recruiting from what is likely to be a “shrinking pool” of graduates, a report has warned.
Recruiter EMR says that the increase in tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000 per year will put graduates off from entering a profession that pays them an average of just under £18,000 per year.
Simon Bassett, managing director of EMR, says that marketing, unlike other professions, such as accountancy, continues to recruit “almost exclusively” from universities, a pattern likely to see brands “passing up the chance to recruit highly talented people”.
He adds: “With the costs of university rising to an astronomical level, many young people will understandably be asking whether higher education is worth the financial sacrifice. It’s time to start looking at alternative ways of training school leavers to prepare them for a successful career.”
In a poll of 331 marketers, EMR found that 39% of marketing professionals would not have gone to university if fess had been as high as they soon will be.
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Readers' comments (14)
Louise | Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:35 am
About time, i had to go to university as there was no apprenticeships or internships for anyone thinking of a marketing or advertising career! Marketing is practical and you do not get enough of this at uni!!
I finished uni in 2009 and struggled to get work because although i was sufficiently educated with a decent 2.1 degree, i didnt have any hands on experience except a couple of weeks here and there. I am now in £20,000 debt and struggled to find a job through lack of experience! Something wrong there...no?
I am now in a job which is given me said experience but i am not earning a degree type salary!
Its about time the uk started looking at the value of a theoretical degree without experience!
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Anonymous | Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:32 pm
Louise, perhaps you can't find a decent paid job because you don't use correct grammar? After all, a key skill in any marketing career is the ability to communicate effectively, especially to a wide audience.
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Anonymous | Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:43 pm
I totally agree, I graduated in 2008 and was forced to temp for 18 months whilst constantly trying to get a job in marketing, and I had a year's experience from my placement year at a well-known brand. Competition for jobs was fierce, I must have had about 15 interviews and got to various stages before finally getting a marketing role. I then got made redundant from that role 6 months later and was back in the same position!
The new tuition fees are enough to put anyone off going to Uni, especially when students hear stories like mine, it must make them wonder why they should bother.
The focus should move from 'experience' to 'potential'.
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Anonymous | Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:45 pm
If degree level entry really is required as opposed to a good apprenticeship/internship then what is to stop students taking a home study Degree course, which has got to be cheaper than going away to Uni? I remember a time when students worked their way through college/Uni & didn't piss it away in the student union!
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Anonymous | Thu, 23 Jun 2011 1:12 pm
I work in Marketing and do not have a Marketing based degree (I actually studies Law!). I have developed my skills through self teaching and observation and have to say my skills are way ahead of those who have done a Marketing degree. Although it is good to have the theoretical background, marketing is mostly practical. Also, those who are naturally creative, will always fare better. You can't really teach creativity.
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Anonymous | Thu, 23 Jun 2011 1:13 pm
There are other routes than uni, I was put off by the debt when I left college.
I was lucky to have CIM at my local college and studied whilst working.
I started at the bottom and worked my way up while studying.
CIM costs a fraction of Uni (less than a years uni fees for the diploma), just a shame there is no help for the fees etc and my company did not fund it, but I was lucky I had very supportive parents.
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Daniel | Thu, 23 Jun 2011 1:40 pm
University fees are too high that is for sure, but the problem also lies in many companies still looking at marketing as 'less of a skill'. If you have graduated from a decent university with a marketing degree your skillset will be far beyond just setting up a DM, briefing an agency, or getting an ad in a paper/website.
My own experience dealing with both recruitment agents and some companies alike is that they don't necessary see the value in a proper marketing degree that deals more with understanding consumer behaviour and market/product strategy rather than just putting together a few ads here and there.
If that is all companies expect from their marketing department then there is no reason to go to university graduates to get the job done, but if that is the attitude in the market then i think many UK companies will pay for it in the future as their products/services will be outclassed by those that see the value in a proper marketing department/function.
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Anonymous | Thu, 23 Jun 2011 1:58 pm
I agree with Louise, I graduated in 2009 and had the same problems in finding a paid marketing job that would offer me any kind of salary.
We did not learn any digital marketing channels which made it even more difficult as it meant the marketing we learnt was out dated and hardly in use anymore. Practical marketing would have been beneficial and would have provided me with the knowledge I needed.
It's almost impossible to find a graduate marketing role, so I went into an unpaid internship with a small business. That gave me the necessary experience and then on I have been in rapidly moved up the marketing ladder into a very well paid marketing position but that was due to hard work not my degree.
With fees increasing I think the majority of young marketeers will choose the internship/unpaid option, which will leave a huge hole in degree qualified professionals.
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guy douglass | Thu, 23 Jun 2011 3:42 pm
From the comments so far on this post it would appear that there are far too many graduates rather than a "brain drain". In fact, fewer graduates (but of a better overall quality) would make recruitment into our business easier because we wouldn't have to wade through the dross to find the diamonds.
We recruited a graduate graphic designer last year and she was the only one on her course to get a job in the industry.
...and don't get me started on the inability of higher education establishments to make their courses relevant. Graphic Design courses don't even appear to teach their students about the importance of interpreting a brief!
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Louise | Thu, 23 Jun 2011 3:47 pm
Apologies for my lack of grammer, I was in a rush to get my point across! Thankfully most people were able to look beyond that and see my valid point! I didn't do a marketing degree I did a Business degree as I thought it would offer a much more rounded insight into the business world, as no department can run without knowledge of another part.I also did a CIM course, but struggled as I was not in a marketing orientated job role. The CIM is great if you have a supportive company behind you and are also within a medium to large business as the modules and coursework are slightly biased. I am now in a job where I am gaining the much needed experience but I would now definately advise people to look for other options, with regards to the cost of uni fees now and still struggling business markets it is a dire time to come out of education!
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