4AS hands out scholarships to lecturers specialising in advertising and marketing

The Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) is offering scholarships for the first time to lecturers specialising in Advertising and Marketing Comunications from any Malaysian tertiary institution for the IPA Foundation Certificate. Twelve scholarships, worth just under RM40,000, have been allotted to full-time adverting and marketing communications lecturers.Johnny Mun, 4As president said this is one of its priority pillars to continuously advance the level of competency and professionalism “by equipping young talents with the necessary skills and tools to enable them to perform brilliantly in the careers.” He added that targeting lecturers to participate in the IPA Foundation Certificate is an efficient and effective way to raise standards in the advertising and marketing communications industry.Mun said: “Our goal is to focus on “training the trainers” as these IPA-certified lecturers will then be able to perform better at preparing their students to be job-ready after they graduate.”The IPA Foundation Certificate, developed by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) UK, is an award-winning and internationally recognised qualification that provides a holistic overview of the current advertising industry. The qualification is widely perceived as a rite of passage in the UK advertising industry.Over 1,500 candidates from 60 countries participate in the Foundation Certificate annually. 4As partnered IPA to launch the certification locally in 2016.“By enabling lecturers to be IPA-certified, they can then adapt these course materials, which are regularly updated by UK-based advertising practitioners, and tailor their course lectures to be relevant, current, and useful. In fact, from the 4As perspective, all lecturers teaching advertising nationwide should be IPA-certified,” added Mun.The 35 hours online course syllabus offers delegates a strong foundation and a comprehensive understanding of the marketing communications process, from  understanding the advertisers’ business, writing strategy and briefs, media, ideation, creative development up to campaign effectiveness.“Our industry is evolving at such a rapid pace that there is an urgent need to populate the vaccum with job-ready graduates,” Mun (pictured) said. “The majority of lecturers who teach advertising and marketing commmunications have never worked in the industry. It’s theoretical knowledge, which while useful, does not help them understand the real work undertaken by industry practitioners. To that extent, the IPA qualification pits delegates, particularly lecturers, at a level playing field by encouraging creative and critical thinking.”Eligibility for the 4As scholarship for the IPA Foundation Certificate is open to Malaysians who are full-time lecturers in advertising and marketing communications.