Several signposts for the school-leaver to follow

ADVERTISING is a diverse industry employing people from a variety of backgrounds so there is no one prescribed path for school-leavers to follow. It is a relatively small industry in Ireland so jobs are not that easy to come by says Fred Hayden, former chief executive of the Association of Advertisers in Ireland.

The reality is that such a lot of material comes in from Britain and other countries that the industry is not going to expand hugely, says Hayden. For school-leavers interested in advertising, he says that it is a business that calls for intuition, effort and imagination. Persistence is also required to break into the business and you must be able to show that you can do the job so a portfolio or other evidence of work done is essential.

The nature of the job is changing. Old skills are becoming obsolete. Computer skills, animation skills, multimedia and the Internet are increasingly being used in advertising.

With the growing importance of film and video, communications courses can also be a good starting point. On the business side, most marketing and business courses will include some elements of advertising.

DIT Aungier Street offers a much sought-after one-year post-graduate diploma in advertising. Course director Michael Hayes explains that applicants far exceed the 30 available places. Interviews are held to ensure that the group of people taking the course will pursue a variety of directions.

"We are actively seeking people with a background in design and communications as well as arts, commerce and business," says Fred Hayden. "We are not just choosing the top 30 people. We want some people who will become copywriters and others who will head in the direction of account handling."

Similarly, he says, people interested in media planning or the production area or art direction are being sought. All of these areas are covered by the course.

The course is semesterised and, for the second semester, students divide into creative and executive streams. For the final part of the course, they come back together but in a different format.

At this point two advertising agencies are formed with a brief sponsored by an outside company. In the past, Kerrygold, An Post, and Bord Iascaigh Mhara have participated.

"The purpose is to bring together all of the information and skills students have acquired over the year and translate these into full advertising campaigns," Hayden explains. "The two agencies pitch for the account. The people leaving the year have some evidence of the work they have done."

Although the industry is small, job prospects for graduates are excellent.

DIT also offers a number of part-time courses administered by the Joint Advertising Education committee. Six professional diplomas are included, each specialising in a different area of advertising: art direction, media, promotion management, product management, copy writing and advertising management.