Education Year in Review

There are two themes which summarise 2011 – one is the significant shift in the type of training being demanded by customers; the second, essentially a consequence of the first, is the gradual but comprehensive evolution of product offerings.

Comparing this year with the previous 12 months reveals some interesting stats. Enrolments for our certificate courses were almost exactly the same, with roughly twice as many students studying for the Digital Marketing Certificate as the Multi-Channel Direct Marketing Certificate – no change from the previous year. We’ve also had very similar levels of enrolments for short courses overall year on year, although within those figures there are some noticeable shifts:

• Digital Marketing courses are now the most popular category overall
• Social Media Marketing courses have grown quickest in popularity
• The number of enrolments for strategic level courses has doubled

The most dramatic shift in demand however has been for in-house training which has doubled year on year and now accounts for a much higher proportion of our sales revenue. Within this category we’ve delivered some very interesting and sometimes quite complex solutions:

• Flight Centre – a customised in-house version of the Digital Marketing Certificate
• Kwik Kopy – a nationwide course to help franchises sell marketing services
• News Ltd – a nationwide course on digital and direct response marketing
• Macquarie Bank – monthly seminars on a range of marketing topics

But it’s not just big brands that are coming to us for in-house training. A large number of smaller organisations from a variety of vertical sectors have run 1 day and 2 day courses on topics including copywriting, retention marketing, social media and digital marketing.

Hand in hand with this has been the shift in the make-up of the products on offer. Of the 20 or so short courses on our menu a year ago practically half have been replaced or have evolved into new courses. The new short course list for 2012 offers a more streamlined suite of courses covering a combination of popular topics and new ones.

We have also been testing online learning with one short course – copywriting – and on the strength of this have developed a new online learning platform where customers will be able to study an online version of the digital marketing certificate. It can also be used to deliver in-house training where appropriate.