Soon to launch AWARD Uni course aims to accelerate careers of mid-weight creatives
AWARD Uni, a new course that accelerates the careers of mid-weight creatives, will launch next month at This Way Up: Australia’s Advertising Festival of Creativity – chaired by industry heavyweight Jonathan Kneebone and a team of acclaimed CCOs and ECDs.
The series of six workshops has been designed for creatives with 3-5 years’ experience, providing them with the critical skills, thinking and confidence to maximise their day-to-day success and long-term career potential.
Kneebone, course curator and co-founder of The Glue Society, has helped develop the careers of some of Australia’s best creative talent. He’ll be joined by co-curators Mandie van de Merwe, CCO, Dentsu Creative; Julian Schreiber, partner and CCO, Special Australia and Barb Humphries, ECD, The Monkeys, in bringing AWARD Uni to life through interactive sessions and short, inspirational lectures.
Says Kneebone: “So many creatively-minded folk come out of AWARD School only to face the daily challenges of working in the advertising industry; whether that’s navigating agency processes, understanding client agendas or even shaping their unique creative perspective.
“We’ve established AWARD Uni to help them overcome those hurdles and guide them in reaching a turning point in their career where things start to run seamlessly, from communicating and creating momentum around an idea to judging it on its merits, selling it through the agency, getting it made in the way they want and more.
“The course will help them catalyse their creative capability, critical thinking and confidence.”
Two modules from AWARD Uni will take place in-person at This Way Up at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art on August 16 and 17. Attendees will then be able to complete the remaining workshops online under the careful guidance of Kneebone, Van Der Merwe, Schrieber and Humphries – with more mentors to be announced in coming weeks.
Says Cam Blackley, chair, AWARD: “AWARD runs the longest-standing and most respected professional development program for creatives in Australia and we’re proud to add AWARD Uni to our offering.
“Training for mid-weight creatives has been the missing link for many agencies in recent years, and it has been rewarding to develop a curated course that inspires and fosters actionable creative skills, things that will help people to make their mark and reach their potential.”
Find out more about AWARD Uni here.
15 Comments
Yes because of a lack of seniors. So we’ll keep ‘training’ mid weights and then dismiss them once they reach a certain age/salary expectation?
Shouldn’t the CDs and seniors of the/your agency be training the mid-weights and juniors? The online-ness of the current work environment hasn’t helped either, but then the majority of this course is also online.
Shouldn’t this course be for seniors looking to step up into CD, not mid-weights – CD. Why skip that step?
Sounds really interesting however are the first two workshops only available in Sydney without a virtual option? Seems a bit wild to expect mid-weights and juniors to pay for the course, flights and accom? Our industry is Australia-wide not just Sydney no?
More monety
There’s no substitute for experience. You learn different things from different environments. There’s a lot of luck involved in that. Creative success is a complicated mix of talent, experience, politics and force of personality. If, like me your force of personality is a strong element -possibly overriding the other elements- you will inevitably piss off people less talented than yourself but better at agency politics. I wonder how much of that can be condensed into a ‘uni’ course.
Here are people trying to do something and the woke wingeing kicks off.
Will AI moan as much as you lot?
Much better list of tutors than some running award school.
Some of them have less than three years agency experience. Terrifying…..
Mids who’ve done 2 long hard years only need to do another year to be certified Seniors. Push through.
Impressive group of leaders behind this course and some really interesting sounding sessions.
Not just for midweights; invaluable for plenty of seniors as well.
I guess it’s a course for those without your force of personality.
A very good initiative, but charging for it? Not so good.
I genuinely believe, those who have done well out of their business –
who’ve built careers on the knowledge they’ve gained working with
experienced colleagues – and now wish to share their accumulated
knowledge with the next gen of creatives – should do so freely.
Now, I’m sure they luminaries aren’t charging for sharing their time
and expertise – but it seems AWARD thinks it should.
At a time when things are getting tougher for our industry, when
salaries are getting smaller, now’s the time for AWARD to be as
free with its’ time and resources as Johnathan, Mandie, Julian and
Barb are.
“Should do so freely”?
AWARD is a non-profit. I am pretty sure these things cost money to put on, even with the goodwill of the luminaries.
Sunset industry for kids
I got the top job based on the work I’d done.
It wasn’t enough.
I genuinely didn’t know what to expect when I landed in the corner office…the tidal wave of department politics, the back stabbing, the importance of personal brand, and the reality of managing and growing client relationships (The true power is building trust, selling the work and making a difference, while still retaining your creative soul).
This idea – and I hope this course – has genuine value. I wish them the best.
But…and it’s a big but…the industry has a very real problem with paying senior staff what they’re worth. Clients also now have unrealistic expectations of whose brain their money can buy. And the networks have unrealistic expectations of staffing costs geared to experience levels.
A single course – no matter how nobly intentioned – can’t fix that.