Blumenthal hits back at criticsAs CEO of the Services SETA, the statutory body responsible for skills development in the marketing sector, which includes marketing services, marketing communication, direct marketing, event management, marketing research and public relations, I am very pleased to note the exceptionally high regard in which South African marketing professionals are held internationally, particularly in Europe and the US. Unfortunately, when I make this statement publicly, I am often criticised for encouraging our South African talent to emigrate. This is not my intention. Instead, what I am highlighting is that the marketing sector is one of the few sectors of our economy where "Service" and not "Product" is the substance of the sale. That being the case, for our South African marketeers to remain competitive on an extremely competitive and cut-throat global stage, the quality of their qualifications and competency certification instruments must be beyond international reproach, something I am happy to report is the case with the qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework. This is necessary to enable South African marketing professionals to sell their services internationally and earn scarce foreign reserves for the country. Message is clearFor aspirant learners my message is clear. Study marketing in South Africa by enrolling at a public or private training provider which is accredited by the Services SETA's Education and Training Quality Assurance Authority (ETQA) and you can be assured that the provider is recognised and its work in producing skilled and competent practitioners is valued by companies which are levy-paying members of the Services SETA. On the other hand, study with a provider whose marketing programmes are not accredited by the Services SETA and you run the risk that the marketing sector of industries might reject your qualifications and therefore not employ you. The advantage of obtaining a marketing qualification from a Services SETA-accredited training provider is that your qualification is automatically co-branded with the European Marketing Confederation, and you are registered on the EMC database as a skilled and competent practitioner. The EMC represents the marketing sectors in more than 38 countries throughout Europe and the Middle East, and now includes South Africa as full members. Two choicesIf your intention is to enter the marketing sector, you have two choices after qualifying. Either you intend to be employed by a dedicated marketing organisation, possibly specialising in one of the formerly mentioned industries, or you intend to be employed by a company which has a marketing function or division, but which is located in a more operationally-specific economic sector such as manufacturing, telecommunications, ICT or banking. You need to be aware that outside of price competitiveness, there is very little today which differentiates your service from your European or US competitors. This being said, inferior qualifications from unrecognised sources will ensure that you are left out of the bidding game altogether. This is especially true in a sector such as marketing which is ever-changing and where you need to keep up with best global practices on a continuous basis. Govern own affairsThe problem is that currently there is no South African marketing sector authority capable of self-governing the sector. The last such structure, the Marketing Federation of South Africa, collapsed at a critical moment in the maturation of the sector, leaving a huge gaping void. Government and more specifically members of Parliament very seldom choose to intervene in a sector and impose a statutory body upon that sector capable of governing it. Government prefers to recognise that a sector has the capacity to govern its own affairs. Hence you see PRISA, the DMA, SAMRA and other employer associations insisting that any new employer structure will be a federation of existing autonomous industry-specific bodies rather than a replacement of them. Magic will sparkThe magic which will re-establish the dominance of the South African marketing sector will spark when the Marketing Association of Professionals and the Marketing Federation of Employers meets to engage and agree on a blue-print for self-governance and regulation. The Services SETA which currently acts as the catalyst for this engagement would like to see this gap filled and these outstanding matters resolved by February 2007. Related articleAbout the authorIvor Blumenthal (ivorb@serviceseta.org.za) is CEO of the Services Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) (www.serviceseta.org.za), the statutory body responsible for skills development in the marketing sector, which includes marketing services, marketing communication, direct marketing, event management, marketing research and public relations
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