Digital Skills Shortage a Major Challenge

The war for digital talent is one of the biggest challenges businesses in Ireland face as demand for qualified and experienced people far outstrips supply, says Ian Dodson, CEO of global digital marketing training company, the Dublin-based Digital Marketing Institute.

“The very pointed message that we are receiving from the industry is that there is a significant skills gap. As the shift to digital continues apace, organisations are needing to adapt fast and are crying out for intelligent, skilled digital marketing professionals. The ticking digital marketing talent time bomb is very real, and it’s not going away,” says Dodson.

Fast-Tracking Students to Full-Time Employment

Dodson’s comments come as the Digital Marketing Institute launches a new course today that aims to fast track graduates and professionals into the full-employment digital marketing arena. To cater for the thousands of graduates leaving third level education in the coming weeks the course is being run full time over the summer months, starting on June 10th.

Combining three months of expert tuition with a three month internship, The Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing promises to have students skilled and experienced in digital marketing in just 180 days, and ready to take advantage of the many career opportunities in this area as it continues to boom.

The course is aimed at graduates, marketing and business professionals looking to reskill or improve on their existing skill set.

“Our goal is to match the best-qualified recruits with employers’ needs to the benefit of both,” says Dodson. “Not only will course graduates be for the abundance of digital marketing job vacancies, businesses will also have access to candidates with the most up-to-date digital marketing skills and knowledge available.”

Digital Marketing One of Few Industries with More Jobs than Qualified Candidates

• 900,000 unfilled digital jobs across Europe by 2015
The European Commission has predicted that a shortfall of trained digital professionals could leave up to 900,000 jobs unfilled in the next two years. .

• Digital a key area of focus in 2013 for 57% of Irish marketing professionals
Surpassing Above-the-Line (ATL) communications for the first time, the Alternatives Digital Market Watch survey revealed that Digital would be the key area of focus marketing professionals in 2013.

• People and skills issues amongst top 3 issues faced by marketers
The same surey reveals that of the top 3 issues marketers face in achieving their objectives, people and skills issues came third after the economy and budgets.

• 18,000 new digital jobs in Ireland by 2016
Amárach Research predicts massive jobs growth in the sector, and that web-related businesses will be contributing €11.3bn to the Irish economy annually by this date.

• 13% increase in digital marketing spend
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found Irish marketing budgets were being dramatically restructured in favour of digital channels in the first six months of last year.
• Online accounts for 21% of global advertising spend
According to a report from GroupM, digital advertising spend reached $99bn worldwide in 2012, a 16.2% increase year-on-year. This figure is predicted to grow by 14.6% to $113.5bn in 2013.

Dodson stresses that education needs to adapt to meet this demand: “It is important that Ireland does not become complacent – the country has made enormous positive steps in attracting multinational digital companies and the government is to be commended for this. However it must do more to push the digital agenda in third level institutions, postgrad teaching and continual professional development.”

Open Evenings for the Digital Marketing Institute course will take place on April 22nd and April 30th in the Chartered Accountants House, Dublin 2 at 5.30pm. For more information on the course visit: www.180days.ie