A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, luckily we give you a lot, is ADMA’s tagline for its new audacious undertaking to bring Australia to the bleeding-edge of marketing and communications capability.

And since B&T loves nothing more than someone else to do the work for us, we’ve signed up as a partner for ADMA IQ. Of course this means all of you, our beloved readers, now have access to the most comprehensive and well-researched education curriculum for marketing professionals in Australia.

Launching with 22 courses, ADMA IQ covers everything from analytics to social media marketing and everything in between. Importantly, IQ also caters for all skill levels from (B&T editor) John Bastick basic all the way up to Mark Zuckerberg mega-smart.

And if you are still psychologically scarred from Sister Margaret’s firm ministrations to you in the third grade because you forgot your nine times table, then fear not because most courses are available online.

Click here to jump through to B&T’s very own IQ landing page to check out the whole curriculum and still enjoy the ADMA member discounts. 

Below is ADMA’s release from the official launch last week:

ADMA Launches New Education Curriculum ADMA IQ

Designed to fill skills gap in Australian marketing industry as new survey of over 300 marketing professionals reveals future industry challenges

Sydney, Australia. 8 February 2016: ADMA (Association for Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising) today announces it has launched a brand new education curriculum ADMA IQ. The new education offer has been developed after wide consultation with the industry in order to equip today’s marketers with the skills they need to succeed and innovate in a rapidly-changing market.

ADMA IQ offers marketers a modular approach to learning, allowing participants to select courses and topics to match their individual needs. This means that ADMA’s industry-recognised certificates can now be made up of individual courses to meet specific learning requirements. Flexibility is key with modules, courses and certificates offered online, in-class or via bespoke in-house courses within an organisation. The new curriculum suits entry level to advanced and covers analytics, creative, content, data, digital marketing, marketing technology, mobile, privacy & compliance, search marketing and social.

Jodie Sangster, CEO of ADMA said, “There is a serious gap in appropriately skilled marketers when it comes to data analytics and true data driven marketing, and that needs to change if Australian businesses want to engage effectively with consumers.

“ADMA consulted widely with the industry on what was needed to address this gap which led to a significant investment in developing an entirely new curriculum, ADMA IQ, in order to drive forward marketing and advertising excellence and innovation in Australia.”

ADMA commissioned a survey of 300 leaders in the marketing industry to outline the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the sector.

When asked which skills leading marketers draw on in their current role, over a third (37 per cent) said they rely on multiple skills including data analytics, copywriting, content creation, social media strategy and programmatic. When asked which skills they’ll rely on more in five years’ time the number relying on all these skills jumped to 52 per cent.

Despite this need for an increasingly diverse range of digital skills, over half (53.8 per cent) of those surveyed admitted there are aspects of their job they’ve never trained in, with the most common areas being data analytics, social media and digital marketing.

The most important skill for the future, according to marketers, will be data analytics, with 94.4 per cent agreeing they will need to use this more than they currently do in five years’ time, and 94 per cent saying it is important or very important to use data to predict consumer needs in marketing .

The ability to analyse data was even placed well ahead of creativity and story-telling ability when marketers were asked which attributes will be most important for the future (90 per cent ranked as important versus 78 per cent and 73 per cent respectively).

Despite this challenging shortage of skills, there is widespread optimism that the industry will continue to thrive, with 86 per cent of those surveyed describing themselves as optimistic or highly optimistic, and only 14 per cent being neutral or unsure.