Advertising Age reported on the latest diversity smokescreen from the IAB, another educational training program targeting minorities and women in college. When it comes to diversity, those who can, do; those who can’t teach—or they offer minority internships and scholarships.
IAB Looks to Recruit Minorities, Women and Vets Into Digital Advertising With College Partnership
Program to Train, Certify and Help Place Participants
By George Slefo
The Interactive Advertising Bureau Education Foundation and its iDiverse initiative said Monday that they are creating an entry-level training, certification and job placement pilot program for college students. Classes are expected to begin this spring.
The effort, announced Tuesday at the IAB Leadership Summit in Palm Desert, Calif., reflects statements the IAB made last year, when the group called on its members to hire 10,000 people with underrepresented backgrounds, including minorities, women, disabled individuals and military veterans, by the year 2020.
Students who complete the course and gain certification will meet with recruiters for one-on-one interviews to be matched with potential employees among the IAB. If hired, students will work in advertising operations, data analysis, sales support and marketing, the IAB said.
“Training is the first vital step in generating a more diverse workforce across the digital media and marketing arena—but we’re making sure that the iDiverse initiative goes much further,” Michael Theodore, senior VP-learning and development, IAB, and general manager, IAB Education Foundation, said in a statement. “By bringing entry-level education together with benchmark testing and hands-on job placement, we’re expecting that this pilot program will lead to expanded efforts and a real move towards increasing racial, gender, economic, and cultural diversity in our industry’s workforce.”
The program’s four-month curriculum will be created in partnership with the San Mateo County Community College District, and Oasis Learning, a competency-based curriculum provider and technology platform, according to the IAB, which said it will also reach out to members to inform the effort.
Students can take the courses in person at San Mateo County Community College or online through Patten University. In addition, Oasis Learning will work with the IAB Education Foundation to license the curriculum to colleges around the country.
Once students finish their courses, they’ll be asked to complete the IAB entry-level digital advertising certification exam. The test covers a broad range of topics that include media mathematics, compliance standards, policies and basics regarding the digital advertising ecosystem such as executing and research a campaign, generating tags and troubleshooting discrepancies.
Students will be recruited through non-profit organizations such as The Mission Continues, Women in Technology, Marcus Graham Project and the Association of University Centers on Disabilities.
Lauren Wiener, president of buyer platforms at video ad network Tremor Video and the the newly appointed chair at the IAB, recently told Ad Age a more diverse workplace is beneficial for companies as it allows them to get better insight into the audiences they are trying to reach.
So, in summary:
ReplyDeleteMinority teenagers have to learn a whole bunch of obscure new media techniques and tricks that will be outdated within a couple of years, jump through more hoops to take a test and get certified, and even more hoops to get hired inside an ad agency.
Their white counterparts have to do none of this, and can rely on the old handshake system to get hired like they always do.
Mid-level and established career people of color get locked out completely, and the IAB gets to claim diversity Brownie Points for SEEMING to make an effort.
Here's an Adcolor Award for you, IAB! And you and you and you too!
The devil's in the small details.
ReplyDeleteThey're "calling on" members to hire "10,000 people with underrepresented backgrounds, INCLUDING minorities, women, disabled individuals and military veterans, by the year 2020."
We all know how that's going to work. First the white women get hired, then the white LGBT (counts as minorities), the the white disabled, then the white military veterans, THEN everybody of color.
Also, there's two ways to "train." One through a college in the Southwest nobody's ever heard of, and the other through a former bible college (?!) with a lackluster reputation.
It's like the IAB got together and said, "What's the least amount of impact we can make for POC, and the highest random number we can throw out that looks good in a PR release? I know, 10,000!"
Prediction:
ReplyDeleteBarely anybody cares or participates in this, then IAB says, "See? No minorities want to enter advertising! They just don't want to!"
No, jackasses, I don't want to turn the time machine backwards until I'm 19, enroll in a nowhere college in a nowhere town, train for shit that's going to be technologically surpassed a month after I enroll, and then get a job offer for minimum wage at the Fremont County Idaho Advertising Agency (city population: 104).
Let's start by actually supporting the POC inside the AdAge A-List ad agencies, expand out to holding company-only ad agencies, and widen the circle from there.
Let's require ad agencies to offer at least SOME positions to people who (fuck their portfolios) are given the same time, money and resources to create a piece of work right there in front of them on an even playing field. Here's a pencil, design software, a paper sketchpad and a working computer for all three of you. You've got an hour.
Let's explain to agency insiders in charge of hiring that saying shit like, "You got any work to show that's not ethnic? or Any ad awards that are more mainstream, not from ethnic markets?" is as dumb as saying "You can only walk through this door if you have a Harvard University diploma key."
Thank you and good night.