PRESS RELEASE

CIM launches apprenticeships for all levels of marketers

• Marketing trainees to senior execs can now take advantage of CIM apprenticeship courses – over 200 marketers sign up
• Test finds the UK marketing community needs to upskill
• CIM calls on businesses to take advantage of the levy
• CIM granted end-point assessor status

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) announced that a new marketing apprenticeship, at Level 3 and a marketing adaptation of the current Senior Leaders Level 7 Apprenticeship, have been approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships. This means that CIM, through its network of training providers will offer apprenticeships from Level 3 Marketing Assistant (equivalent to an A Level qualification) through to Level 7 (equivalent level to a Master’s degree).

A joint CIM and Target Internet test into the skills of 5,000 marketers, found that marketers at all levels needed to upskill themselves in order to keep up with changes in the sector. For example, executives lacked core digital skills like content (25%) and mobile marketing (28%). To address this CIM has worked with brands including Mercedes Financial Services, Seetec, NS&I, Clarks and BT to launch the first apprenticeships for the marketing industry backed by government (Level 4 and Level 6). The two new apprenticeships at level 3 and 7 combined with CIM’s existing apprenticeship portfolio, provides a complete end-to-end offering. Another first for the marketing sector.

The Level 3 marketing assistant apprenticeship will be offered by Cambridge Marketing College, Oxford College of Marketing and the Professional Academy, who also provide the Level 4 and 6 apprenticeships. The Level 4 and Level 6 apprenticeships have proven popular, with over 200 people signed up already.

Discussing the announcement Maggie Jones, Director of Qualifications and Partnerships at CIM said: “Businesses can now access apprenticeship funding for marketers wherever they are on their career journey; from the marketing basics all the way to a post-graduate marketing qualification.”

“Apprenticeships are a critical non-academic route for people to enter the marketing profession. At CIM we believe in the importance of professional marketing training to ensure consistency and quality in the standard of marketing at all levels. These new qualifications will help further professionalise the marketing industry.”

CIM awarded end-point assessor status

Having worked on the development of the marketing apprenticeships, The Chartered Institute of Marketing has received independent end-point assessor organisation (EPAO) status. By becoming an EPAO, CIM is responsible for assessing apprentices at the end of their course. CIM’s role as the guardian of professional marketing makes it the ideal organisation to oversee consistency in the assessment of apprenticeships.

The first apprentices will be assessed in early 2020.

ENDS

Notes to editors

For media enquiries

Test methodology

Nearly 5,000 individuals (4872) were asked a series of questions on 12 core digital marketing related topics. The questions were taken from a bank of questions on each topic that tested both tactical and strategic knowledge. These questions were weighted according to difficulty/ level of specialism, and a percentage score was calculated out of a possible 100%. The benchmark was tested in a range of commercial organisations before being made more broadly available. This was to make sure the results aligned with the reality of an individual’s skills. Questions are regularly updated to reflect the latest industry best practice and are aligned with the Chartered Institute of Marketing professional standards and qualifications. The data was collected and then cross referenced against third party industry data to check for validity. It was also manually reviewed to make sure the individuals and their organisations represented a broad range of roles, organisation type and size within each industry. We continue to collect data on an ongoing basis and this allows us to keep on increasing the sample size, as well as seeing changes over time.

To take the test: https://www.targetinternet.com/benchmark-digital-marketing-skills-assessment/

For further information please contact the Chartered Institute of Marketing press office at Good Relations on CIMTeam@goodrelations.co.uk

For CIM enquiries

James Delves
CIM Head of PR and External Engagement
james.delves@cim.co.uk 

About CIM

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) is 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. CIM has 130 study centres in 36 countries and there are 132 countries with exam centres. In the last year, over 7,500 people registered at over 230 CIM events. Find out more about CIM by visiting www.cim.co.uk.