The IPA is launching a new competition along similar lines to its
Effectiveness Awards as part of efforts to convince outsiders that the
industry is taking training and development seriously.
Agencies and individuals will be able to enter the awards which will
honour a wide range of successful training initiatives.
These could include anything from a programme to help staff learn new
skills in the wake of an agency merger or an account manager who has had
to brush up their media knowledge.
The competition is open to the 42 IPA member agencies whose training
levels have met its Continuous Professional Development standard and
their 3,000 staff.
Gary Duckworth, the chairman of the IPA's training and development
committee, said: "These awards can be entered by anybody whatever their
experience, be it six months or 20 years."
The winners will be chosen from a judging panel of industry figures
chaired by Adrian Vickers, the Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO founding partner
and the IPA's honourary secretary.
Launching the awards this week, Bruce Haines, the IPA president, said
they reflected the "explosive growth" in professional development. He
added: "The bar has been raised on professional standards across the
industry."
Ann Murray Chatterton, the IPA's director of training and development,
said: "No professional qualifications are needed to enter the ad
industry and that's not necessarily a bad thing because its greatest
asset is the diversity of its people. But equally we need to demonstrate
that they have the professional training."
.jpg)