By Sarah Parkes, Managing Partner Talon Network & Grand Visual
Freshers’ Week around the UK looked distinctly different this year, with students ditching boozing and partying for board games and yoga. Student associations hosted more sober, hobby-focused events to welcome students who are increasingly focused on wellbeing and managing their bank balances.
It’s no wonder young people have become more concerned about their finances. Youth employment has reached its highest level in more than three years, according to official figures. Meanwhile this year, the pass rate for GCSE, BTech Awards and other Level 2 results, fell for the third year running with 67.6% of all grades at 4/C and above. All of which makes it a very difficult time to be a young adult.
Young people who don’t achieve the right grades or can’t afford the cost of further education can rest assured that there are many other ways to get into the workplace via apprenticeships and placement schemes. And the advertising industry presents a wide range of opportunities for young people, regardless of qualifications.
But many in the younger generation either aren’t aware of the advertising sector or don’t find the prospect of working in it alluring. Advertising was once seen as an attractive career choice for ambitious young people, but people are more likely to associate the industry with annoying or intrusive ads – in fact, a new survey, more than two-thirds of people (70%) find digital advertising annoying and unpleasant.
We need to do much more to make this industry a more attractive place to work and to communicate what we offer. The sector is extremely varied and encompasses many disciplines and hundreds of different roles across areas such as creative, strategy, media, AI, tech, production, client services, sustainability – even architectural skills can come into play for the creation of OOH sites.
When I visited schools around the country as part of the Speakers for School programme, I was met with blank stares when I asked the classes I spoke with if they’d ever considered a career in advertising. Very few of the pupils knew anything about this industry and the huge range of skills that could be put to work within it. Fixing this requires us to boost outreach and invest in more DE&I-driven recruitment schemes, but also to raise awareness about our industry at the Department for Education level. Leaving school at 16 I fell into the industry by chance, but had I known about advertising’s potential, it would have been a clear choice for me, for sure.
Many agencies across advertising, media and outdoor provide innovative schemes for young recruits from non-traditional backgrounds, and industry bodies, including the Ad Association and the IPA, are investing in programmes and raising awareness.
At Talon, we offer year-long internships via Creative Access (paid at London Living wage), have partnered with ERIC (the platform to help young people explore a creative career) and have taken part in the IPA’s Advertising Unlocked scheme, alongside hosting Career Inspiration Days with MEFA (Media For All) and Clear Channel.
But all businesses need to do more to step up and offer more routes into entry level roles. For example, Global has developed a school careers programme Global Academy, which offers creative courses to young people from Years 10-13 wanting to enter the radio, TV, digital, advertising and social media industries. The industry needs to work collectively to ensure that diverse young talent can be part of this incredibly dynamic industry. Of course, it’s not enough just to remove barriers to entry. To retain diverse young talent, we need to provide the right training, culture and support to make this a great place to work for everyone.
The next generation deserves to look forward to a rewarding career, and we can make that happen.
The advertising sector fuels the UK economy. When a pound is spent on advertising it adds six to UK GDP, according to Deloitte. By boosting the influx of diverse talent we’re not just future-proofing our sector, we’re safeguarding the financial health of the country.
