New CIM programme recognises top marketing training

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has today announced an update to its successful recognition programme for third-party marketing courses.

The expansion of the existing programme comes following growing demand from learners and employees for internationally recognised professional qualifications and courses for marketers.

The expanded offering will ensure that more people studying marketing and related disciplines can guarantee their course or qualification meets CIM’s respected industry standards.

CIM expects the service to be taken up by universities, business schools, and training providers who are looking for a differentiator when attracting learners. Challenges across the higher education market and the Apprenticeship Levy has led to the education market becoming increasingly competitive.

Learners will, in turn, benefit from a wider range of qualifications that are recognised as being best-in-class by the business sector, improving their career prospects.

In recent years, the burden of marketing regulation on corporates has increased, from the mis-selling of financial services to the advertising of high fat, salt and sugar foods.

This has increased employer demand for qualified professionals able to advise on topical issues facing the industry, such as data privacy and advertising to children.

From today CIM will be offering three types of partnerships:

• University partnerships: The new recognised degree is aimed specifically at providers offering courses with less than a third marketing content. Complementing the existing CIM accredited marketing degrees (which provide students with partial exemptions from professional qualifications), CIM will assess and accredit the marketing content of the course and allow qualifying courses to describe their marketing content as CIM recognised. CIM already works with leading universities such as: Nottingham Trent, University of Hertfordshire and Bournemouth University.
• Qualifications and training provider partnerships: CIM will recognise externally run courses that meet its professional marketing competencies. By partnering with CIM, training providers will be able to enhance credibility and learning propositions to differentiate them from other providers. Target Internet, Fund Marketing Network, Pearson Publishing and Event Academy are examples of leading training providers who currently partner with CIM.
• Business partnerships: CIM will recognise in-house and off-site training undertaken by corporations and other organisations. The recognition programme will provide employers and employees with confidence in the quality of a course, as well as introducing CIM’s 30,000 global members to a range of providers with the CIM stamp of approval. Existing business partnerships include: the Cabinet Office, Vodafone and Panasonic.

Maggie Jones, associate director of qualifications and partnerships said:

“CIM qualifications are globally respected and our new recognition programme expands the opportunities for people to take a CIM recognised course. To develop the new programme, we drew on our experience working with employers, leading universities, colleges and private training providers across the UK and around the world, to enhance and differentiate their learning propositions.

“The new programme provides a greater synergy between CIM and public/private organisations, while adding value to the qualifications students receive when leaving higher education. Professional marketing skills deliver a clear advantage for business and CIM is committed to giving marketers the tools they need to achieve their professional goals.”

About The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM): The world’s leading marketing body, with over 30,000 members worldwide, of which there are over 3,000 Chartered Marketers. CIM’s mission is create marketing advantage for the benefit of professionals, business and society with a focus on export, data and skills. It believes marketing is the critical factor in driving long term organisational performance.

CIM provides members and organisations with five key benefits: 

• Partnership – CIM is a professional and organisational partner to support performance and career development
• Education – CIM allows individuals and businesses to continuously upskill
• Information – CIM keeps members up to date with the latest marketing thinking, and keeps organisations at the forefront of practices
• Connection – CIM provides access to services, expertise and peers
• Recognition – CIM is the global benchmark of professional competence

For more than 100 years, CIM has supported, represented and developed marketers, teams, leaders and the profession as a whole. There are 130 CIM study centres in 36 countries and exam centres in 132 countries worldwide. In the last year, over 7,500 people registered at over 230 UK CIM events.