SayPro Online Course National Certificate in Advertising 58820

SAQA ID: 58820  Operate a Windows System NQF Level 05 Credits Regular-Unit Stds Based 

PURPOSE AND RATIONALE OF THE QUALIFICATION
Purpose:

Advertising practice demands an attention to detail, adherence to deadlines, work ethic, positive regard for others (i.e. colleagues and clients), professionalism and a willingness to go beyond the obvious. The purpose of this qualification is to ensure that qualified learners understand advertising agency processes, systems and technical methods in general, and specialise in the processes, systems and technical methods that they are (to be) involved in by achieving specific competence. These processes, systems and technical methods refer to copywriting, art direction and design, client service, media buying, television/radio production, and print production.

For the individual that achieves this qualification, it means improved levels of competence to compete internationally, achieving defined learning outcomes in a shorter space of time, getting a foot in the door to progress to higher levels on the learning and career pathway in Advertising, and improved employment opportunities as a result of the integration of knowledge (theory) and skills (practical) to do their job from day one. The industry also benefits from increased efficiency and saving time and money, and improved competitiveness and quality. Access to information and products and services is improved, with resulting social and economic benefits.

Although this qualification provides and exit point from learning and they do not have to achieve an entire degree before earning a living, learners can come back and continue their learning process at any time. In addition, certain outcomes achieved to qualify are transferable to other fields, for example, project management, team work, seeing from another person’s point of view, and improves career options for qualified learners. To qualify, learners learn to learn by evaluating progress and outputs, and improving on their own work.

Qualified learners are capable of:
Analysing and sourcing information required for advertising decision-making.
Presenting ideas and making recommendations regarding appropriateness and relevance of ideas and recommendations.
Interpreting information for advertising assignments to determine resource requirements.
Evaluating advertising assignment progress.
Evaluating advertising assignment outputs.
Implementing and coordinating advertising assignment activities according to brief.

Rationale:

International and national trends that impact on competence needs in the Advertising field include the following:
There are increasing numbers of full time freelancers, and freelancing agencies who do only ad hoc projects.
Younger people are being promoted earlier and are required to sell with higher levels of energy.
The importance of working unsupervised and managing oneself is increasing.
Working at a faster pace and higher expectations to do things faster because of the application of technology.
Agency culture is changing to value creativity in all departments, and not just in the creative department as has traditionally been the case.

The advertising industry in South Africa generally requires two sets of competence, namely, frontline (with a focus on the big picture) and behind-the-scenes/back-end (with a detail focus) competencies. People employed in advertising agencies apply these sets of competence to fulfil copywriting, art direction and design, client service, media buying, television/radio production and/or print production functions. Historically, agencies have engaged in a large amount of informal training in the workplace, but are facing challenges (i.e. in terms of resources and competitiveness) to address training needs in this way. In addition, training has, for the most part, not been comparable from one agency to the next, as learning outcomes remained undefined, and learners could not receive national recognition for what they have learnt. This qualification is aimed at addressing the needs for competence by ensuring that learning achievements are clearly defined and are nationally recognised.

Qualified learners are employed as copywriters, junior account executives, junior producers, etc. Typical learners would enter this qualification after achieving a Further Education and Training Certificate: Advertising (NQF Level 4), or Further Education and Training Certificate in related fields such as Design, or Marketing. Most learners are employed by advertising agencies (about 90% of learners) and some are self-employed:
Those who pursue a copywriting career have either achieved a Further Education and Training Certificate in school (about 50% of learners), or come from other (communication or language) fields such as Journalism, and are in the process of changing careers.
Those who pursue art direction and design careers have mostly achieved a Further Education and Training Certificate in school (about 80% of learners), with others coming from related fields such as visual arts, craft, or theatre.
Those who pursue client service careers should ideally have achieved the Further Education and Training Certificate: Advertising (NQF Level 4), although they also come from related fields such as media, and are sometimes graduates with sales experience, or come from agency client organisations. Within agencies, this group is most often recruited from the client service secretaries, or telephonists, that is, in-house promotion is prevalent.
For the media buying career path, internal promotion is also prevalent, and most learners come from matric, and sometimes the accounting field.
In television/radio production, television or radio assistants, or sometimes runners, from production companies/agencies pursue this qualification, as well as matriculants who have some home recording or photography experience, and learners from other fields such as theatre and media (radio, television).
In print production, print production assistants from production companies may pursue this qualification, as well as learners with NQF Level 4 technical printing qualifications.

The Advertising learning pathway starts at NQF Level 1 where General Education addresses the communication and numeracy competencies required as a basis for further learning. At Further Education and Training levels, learners acquire competencies as part of many different qualifications, but the first qualification that is Advertising-specific is at NQF Level 4, namely, the Further Education and Training Certificate: Advertising. This NQF Level 5 qualification follows, and learners can then progress to a variety of first degrees, including one that is Advertising-specific. Where the NQF Level 4 qualification requires learners to gather information and coordinate resources for copywriting, art direction and design, client service, media buying, television/radio production, and print production, this NQF Level 5 qualification is set to ensure that the information and resources gathered are screened and selected for higher (NQF Level 6) decision-making. By improving the standards in Advertising education and training, advertising standards will also improve, raising the level of communication and design, and therefore, society benefits in that things work better, and are better communicated.