 Hello, and welcome to today's Advanced in your Marketing and Career webinar. Before we get started, I'd like to go over a few items so you know how to participate. The presentation will last for approximately 40 minutes. You'll be able to send text questions to today's presenter by typing your questions into the chat box of the control panel. You may send in your questions at any time during the presentation and we'll collect and address as many as we can during the Q&A session at the end. Unfortunately, we don't send slides of the presentation. However, the webinar will be available for you to watch on demand via our content hub exchange in the next couple of working days. I would now like to hand you over to Keir Ancapour from Cambridge Marketing College who will be presenting today's webinar. Thank you, Sarah, and good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to this webinar. We're going to be talking about Advanced in your Marketing Career, specifically to do with the Marketing Certificate in Professional Marketing at Level 4. I'm going to cover the benefits of studying, the sort of job roles that you might like to look at achieving, the entry requirements, how you can get started, and there will be plenty of time for questions at the end. But, as Sarah said, you can type your questions as you go through as well. So, the first thing I wanted to do was introduce myself. Then we're going to have a couple of polls where I get to find out who you are, and then we'll start looking at the qualification itself. So, my name is Keir Ancapour. I'm the CEO of the Cambridge Marketing College. We're one of the CIM's leading marketing colleges, and we've talked to the CIM qualification since 1991, so we like to think we know what we're doing. I started at the college nearly 20 years ago as a tutor for the CIM, and I also was a CIM examiner for over 12 years. So, I know the CIM both as a tutor side, but also as an insider as an examiner. So, let me ask you about you, and you're about to get a poll coming to you. What I really want to know at this stage is whether you're in marketing yet, because quite often at level four, people are either at the beginning of their marketing career, or they've been in marketing a little while, but they now want to get a qualification, or sometimes people have been working in other areas, quite often accountants, I think, see the light and decide that they want to become marketers. So, the first poll that's coming towards you is to find out just how many years experience that you have. Just a little pause while we wait for the results to come through. Oh, there we go. I've got... Oh, half of you have got less than two years experience, and half of you have got more than two years experience, so that's quite helpful, but there's nobody here at the moment who hasn't yet come into marketing. That's great. And then my next question is going to be a geographic question that I'd like to know where you are geographically. As I said, we're one of the CIM's leading colleges, and we teach students from around the world. I think at the last count, we'd had students for 114 countries. So, I'd really like to know whether you are in the UK, whether you're in Europe, or whether you are outside of Europe, because that will help me talk about the qualification in a way that is relevant to you. So, that poll should be coming towards you now. Okay, and that's quite useful. You're all in the UK. Fine. That gives me a good steer. Thank you very much for doing that. So, let's deal with the first question I normally get, which is, what on earth does Level 4 mean? What is a Level 4 qualification? So, levels are related to education levels. And for the UK, a Level 4 is basically the first year that you go to university. It's your first year of study after a level, so often the first year of study after school. And it can also be equivalent to a foundation degree or an HND. There is a European Qualifications Framework, and if you were doing that, that links all the qualifications around Europe on one standard framework, and that, in fact, it would be equivalent to a European Qualifications Framework, Level 5. And the Scottish levels are slightly different, so it's equivalent to a Scottish Level 7 and 8. But that's what a Level 4 means. It's nothing, it's not very complicated. It just explains the type of level that qualification is taught at. So, let's have a look at who should take the CIM qualification. Predominantly, where it's, and I'm guessing since most of you are in marketing and have some experience, you're probably already marketing assistants looking to become marketing executives. So, it covers off the beginning levels of marketing, some of the basic marketing theories like the product life cycle, like how to put together communications plans, how to do a certain level of digital marketing, for example. That's the level that the CIM qualification, certificate qualification covers. So, its marketing assistants want to become marketing executives, some people that are non-marketers that are looking to come into marketing, and marketers with experience who want to gain a qualification. And the little quote I've given you on the top right-hand corner of the slide is actually taken from the CIM's own survey, and I'll be quoting that extensively as we go through. And this is someone who's working as a marketing executive, and as she says, the certificate was invaluable, and it was a great addition to her CV. So, one of the questions I get asked is, in marketing, is it necessary to have a qualification? And this actually became a huge discussion a couple of years ago from a commentator called Mark Ritson, who writes in Marketing Week. If you don't read Marketing Week, I recommend it. And if you don't know Mark Ritson's column, do look for it. He's quite often controversial, but he has some very good ideas and makes some very good comments about the state of marketing. So, he started a column where he said, maybe it's just me, but shouldn't an expert in marketing be trained in marketing? You need a qualification to be qualified. And this sparked a huge discussion within the industry about whether marketers needed a qualification, or whether it was something that you learned as you went on the job. And I'm quoting this again from people that responded to Mark Ritson's article. And here's somebody saying that experience is what matters, and, of course, you can learn on the job, but a formal qualification is helpful. And another example of somebody going, I'm the first to encourage you to break rules, but it needs to be a conscious decision. So, you have to know the rules before you can break them. And that's, again, what a qualification gives you. So, let's look at some of the advantages of taking a qualification. So, I've given you six reasons to be CIM accredited. It does make your CV stand out. That was the, there was also a quote from the lady earlier saying that she felt that it has CV stood out. Because it shows your commitment. You have committed time to studying. You are committing time to learning more about your career. It demonstrates that you have a level of knowledge. Everybody who has CIM level four qualification has a similar level of knowledge. That's very useful for an employer when they're looking to recruit somebody. And it's a great way to fill in any gaps in your experience. So, if you have learnt on the job, it's a really useful way of saying, yep, I've learnt this on the job, but here are the things that I hadn't learnt on the job, but I now know the theory. I've given you another quote here that the CIM certificate definitely helps me stand out and I feel it adds to my credibility. And I think credibility is a very key word there. Studying fits around you and most importantly around your organisation. You can study alongside your day job and that's really important. And the assessments for all CIM qualifications do relate to your organisation. So, it's all very well learning about the product lifecycle, but it means much more if you can then relate it to your own organisation's products. And that's very much the way the CIM qualification and the assessments are designed to do. Hey, surveys have shown that those who have a CIM qualification can earn 10% more than non-members over the course of their career. That's quite significant. And it's worth the pain, and there is some pain in getting any qualification, particularly when you are already working and then you are studying alongside. But there are some definite benefits and rewards that come out from that. And the next one would be your promotion prospects. Again, the CIM survey did, asked a panel of senior marketers and found that 87% of them held a CIM qualification. So the message is very clear in order to become more senior, you need qualifications. And number five is that the qualifications knowledge is very practical. The CIM courses are created from feedback with employers. And so the CIM asks employers what skills and knowledge they need their marketing team to have. And they use that to create both the syllabus for the qualification and also for the assessments for the qualification so that you know that what you're gaining is very practical tools and techniques that you can use immediately. And lastly, the CIM qualifications are internationally recognised. So they are recognised if you see your career wanting to move internationally or wanting to work in multinational businesses, having a CIM stamp on your CV really does matter. Recruiters will look at you knowing that you have a qualification with great credentials that they do recognise. So a little bit on the qualification itself, the qualification has got three modules. And there are two modules that you must pass and then you have a choice of one of two other modules. And you have to pass one of those. So in overall, you're passing three modules. You can take each module as a standalone award. So if you decide for whatever reason you don't want to do all three modules, you can choose one and gain an award in that and that still gives you a qualification. If you pass all three, you then get, you again get the CIM certificate in professional marketing. Modules cover marketing theory and as I keep stressing it is applied to real life organisations and the assessments are based on your organisation so they are very relevant to what you do. And you will learn theories, you will learn techniques and you will learn how to apply those in different industries. One of the questions I get asked frequently is what is the entry criteria. So here are the various entry criteria that allow you to take the certificate. So one is to get the CIM level three certificate in marketing which is a qualification for UK that's based at A level, A level is level three. Any other relevant level three qualification so relevant here would be something in business or marketing. A UK degree or an international equivalent in a non-marketing subject. The international baccalaureate equivalent to level three and above or you've got experience within marketing and some of you had got over two years experience within marketing. The CIM suggests at least one year so if you've got two years you should most definitely be eligible. And then there is a diagnostic assessment that the CIM offers. That's a series of online questions that you log in and take and at the end of it it will give you a recommendation that's the right level for you to study. That's why it's called diagnostic. But if you pass that and it says yes you're ready to study on level four that's sufficient to say can I apply to the CIM certificate. One of the other questions I get asked a lot is how long does it take? Well most people take between 12 and 18 months for the three modules so they're roughly six months per module. Each module is assessed in April, July or December every year so depending on when you start so we are recording this in June starting now would go for the December assessment for their first module. And if December wasn't suitable they could then go for the following year the April assessment. And you should assume we normally say six to eight hours I've put eight hours on the slide because most of us say we'll do eight hours and then we don't quite manage to achieve it. So if you assume it's going to be a minimum of an hour a day that's a good way to think about studying successfully for the CIM certificate. And we find people study sometimes in lunch hours at work I have students that go in to work early and then block off time so they can study in a meeting room when it's quiet. I have other students that can study in the evening others study on their way to work if they travel by public transport or that tends to be easier if you can study in bite sized chunks rather than trying to set aside I'm going to spend the whole of Sunday studying and I'm going to do all seven or eight hours in that day because you won't nobody can study for eight hours to stretch you get bored you end up doing other things or you end up just not concentrating and taking it in. So assume an hour a day but actually think about breaking that into chunks. When can I start? So it does depend how you want to study there are various ways of studying and the CIM has a number of study centres around the UK and internationally and I've given you here the link to the CIM study centre finder cim.co.uk slash study centres and the little image on the right hand side of your screen is taken from that so you can see that it's a geographic map and you can put in where you are you say the type of studying that you want to do and I'll talk about that in a second and then the study centre finder will select some study centres for you that are close to you that meet your criteria. So the various ways that you can study you can study face to face in classes that can be a very useful way of studying you will meet other people doing the same qualification as you they are usually working for different types of organisations and different types of industries and that can be very valuable because you start to learn how the series and techniques apply not only to your own company but also to other people and other people's industries. You can also study by online learning and some organisations will offer purely online learning and some study centres offer a mixture of the two. So if you are looking to study from classes then you need to wait for the next set of timetable classes for whichever study centre you have chosen. If you are looking to study online then you should be able to start straight away because most online learning is on a roll on roll off. Blended learning you may have the benefits of doing the roll on roll off but you will also have to wait for the classes to be scheduled. Online learning can work extremely well if you like to study by yourself if you are very organised in your study and if you travel a lot or if you're not likely to be able to find time to attend classes or just you prefer the convenience of carrying your studies around with you at all times and be able to study in odd moments. Online learning can work very well. I'm very passionate about it but I would be the first to say it does not suit everybody. So choose your method. Go to the CIM Study Centre Select the qualification that you want to do which is on the left hand side of the screen of the study centre finder put in your geographic location and as I said the CIM will do the work for you and will give you a list of study centres that are suitable for your criteria. The next question I normally ask is how much does it cost? You need to think about a total cost which is the cost of tuition plus the CIM fees and they are separate. So you decide the method you want to study online classes or blended you choose your study centre the study centre will have their own tuition fees and you pay those to the study centre for the tuition work that they are giving you. Then on top of that you pay to the CIM a membership each year it's a studying membership which is currently £60 per year. You also need to pay the CIM an assessment fee and that's basically the fee to cover the cost of marking the assessments. For the UK that is £145 per module certain overseas countries it's £125 but for all of you online at the moment you're looking at £145 per module. You don't have to pay all of that together you would pay the studying membership fee immediately and then you pay for your assessment fees by deadlines at the CIM sets but coming up to the assessments. So you haven't got to find the membership and the study centre fees and the assessment fees all up front. So some tips for success. The most important one is to commit the time. Every so often we get somebody who is very keen to study usually very keen, very enthusiastic wants to do absolutely everything and is going to study with us get a promotion and move house. That as a combination is a combination for a lot of stress not enjoying the studying not getting the best out of it and ending up feeling very disillusioned by it all. So try to choose a time when there isn't too much else going on in your life and commit the time to study. I said it was an hour a day you need to be prepared to put that time in and you need to be putting that time in regularly. It isn't, you're not taking a degree we all did this at university where we left it until the last minute and then studied overnight and then somehow managed to get through it doesn't work like that when you are studying and working at the same time. So some first and most importantly commit to the time. Get your manager on board. Some students are funded by their companies other students choose or other students pay for themselves either because they've chosen to do that or because their companies don't pay for them but either way ideally get your line manager on board because they are the key to you getting information about the company they're key to you being able to talk to them about what you're learning and keep getting a check and information on what you are learning and how it relates to your organisation. And also you're doing this to partly because you want to get the knowledge but also to enhance your career your manager should know that you are doing this. Do create some space for study. Now on the slide I've written at home but actually that could be at work it could be at the local library it could be at a friend's house it doesn't matter so long as you have a space that is dedicated to the study. While distance learning and online learning are wonderful because you can study everywhere if you try to study everywhere and you are constantly distracted that is not a good way to learn and I know that's obvious but it's surprising how often people forget that when they're in the throes of studying. So you need space to study if you're going to study on your commute to work that's absolutely fine but you will still need quiet time to reflect on things that isn't around when you've got other people around you. Do enlist help from colleagues from friends and from family friends and family are going to have to be quite sympathetic to the fact that you keep locking yourself away to study. When you're coming up to an assessment time you will need more than eight hours a week you will need time to think about your assessment to write your assessment or to revise for an exam they need to be very sympathetic to that happening. Getting help from your colleagues is really useful because you can then talk about what you've learnt. Many marketers have taken the CIM qualification seek them out, they will be very sympathetic and they usually pour information at you. The other final tip I would give you is keep your eye on the prize that we all have a point midway through studying when we wonder and there's many other more exciting things we can go and do in our lives. Keep your eye on the prize, keep remembering those six reasons why you were signing up to do the CIM certificate in the first place that will really help your motivation as you go through. That is what I wanted to cover in this webinar. The slide coming up gives you places that you can take your questions to with the CIM there's telephone numbers and also email addresses are there any questions for me to take? Thank you, Kieran. We're now going to answer some of the questions that have been submitted. I just wanted to remind the audience that you can still submit questions via the chat box in the attendee control panel. Just a couple of questions to start with with Kieran. Once somebody has signed up to study the certificate qualification how long do they have to complete it? It will partly depend on their study centre and how long the study centre gives for the tuition. For the college for the certificate we would expect you to complete it within 18 months. If there were reasons why you couldn't it will help being one of the occasionally changing jobs and what have you so long as we know we will often extend it but that does depend on your study centre and their terms and conditions so I would check that when you sign up. The CIM's own ruling and Sarah you may know this better than me I think it's five years from starting and becoming a studying membership to actually completing the certificate. I guess the other thing to point out really is that you don't have to study them all in one go because as you mentioned the modules can be done by an award basis so it's not necessary that you would have to sign up and do the whole qualification in one package you could do it individually if that worked better for you. The next question here is would these assessments, are they exams how would somebody be assessed? Okay there are different types of assessments for different modules but there is a multiple choice exam which is it allows you two hours to take it so I have to say most people manage to complete it in less time than that and that's literally it's a multiple choice on any part of the syllabus so you do need to gen up your syllabus before you, the whole syllabus before you take that. The other modules are and I said there were two mandatory, one of the mandatory ones is the exam the other mandatory one is an assignment as are the two elective modules you have to take one of the two electives and they are all done by an assignment which means the CIM sets a question and then you answer that question, you write a report as though you were writing a report for work but you write a report on that based on your company answering the question that the CIM has set and they're usually between two and a half to four thousand words the assessments. So it's a significant piece of work but it's not you're not writing a whole thesis or anything like that it's a standard report length if you're writing a report for work. Thank you Kiran and would you say it's essential for somebody to actually be working to be able to complete the qualification? That's a very good question it's better to be working because you have an organisation to write about however I do find that sometimes people come to us because they have been made redundant occasionally taking the qualification is part of a redundancy package and what we then say is either write on an organisation that you know about or even ask to research an organisation you'd quite like to go and work for and it gives you a chance to go and talk to them. Most of us can write about some organisation either one we currently work in or people sometimes volunteer for charities and they can write about the charity so there are always ways of accessing an organisation it's just easier if you've got one that you're currently working for because you've got access to the information you need. Thank you Kiran so we have another question here somebody would like to know if they sign up for the online course how long will they be able to use the resources from the study centre? So would that be I should not be for the length of their study time with you is that correct? It would be for the length of the study time and again that will vary from study centre to study centre for us the certificate we would expect around 18 months but we would also set it so that it was the end of the next assessment period so if you're 18 months actually finished at the end of October you would find that we extended you to the end of December because that would cover the December assessment period so it may not be quite quite a hard and fast rule but usually it's access to the online learning zone while you are studying. Great, thank you. Another question here so for somebody with a degree and just under two years experience would you recommend the certificate or the diploma qualification? Okay it depends what the degree is in and if there is any element of marketing or business within that degree if there was then that's part of a conversation I would normally have and go well you've done a bit of marketing so you've got the basic marketing theory and you've got two years experience you might be ready for the diploma we would normally then encourage the diagnostic test the CIM's test the point about that is you've got the right level of marketing theory knowledge before you take before you start the qualification there's no point in starting a diploma if you haven't got some of the basic marketing theory because you're just going to flounder so the diagnostic test really is very very useful and it's not scary it's just a little online test that checks your theory knowledge. Thank you Kiran. Another question here is is the assignment something you work on as an individual or with a team of people or people on your course? Definitely as an individual you will write it as an individual and you will hand it in and be marked as an individual by all means discuss it within a team and when I teach I love it when people are sitting down often in the coffee break talking about how they've tackled a part of the assignment and how they've related it to their own organisation and I think that's hugely beneficial but you will write it very definitely as an individual. Great. Thank you. Another question here are there practice exam questions available? There are. The CIM have published online exam questions that are available and obviously the answers because there's no point in just having the questions if you haven't got the answers and they have been released and are available to studying members and you'll also find that your study centre will have access to those so yes there are plenty of opportunities to practice ready for the exam. Thank you. Somebody has asked if they can take a break once they have started studying. That's an interesting one. Yes you can. If you know that that's likely to happen I would suggest perhaps taking the award route so just do one module at a time. The other option would be but yes of course if you start and something comes up and for some reason you can't continue we're always open and sympathetic to people taking a break. We've had maternity leave and sickness. There are a number of reasons why people might need legitimate reasons why people might need to take a break. I would suggest pressure of work is not one of them. You need to know that you can carve out the time before you sign up but life is life and things happen and things get in the way. So that's certainly for our study centre I cannot imagine that any other study centre would be different but again you might want to check before you signed up. Great thank you. I think we have our final question here unless anybody else would like to post any questions. Can I sit for the level 3 and level 4 exams or assignments and rolling into a study centre? No, absolutely not and that is against the CIM's rules you have to be sponsored by a study centre. So that's for the exams or the assignments you must come through a study centre. But it's a good question and I can see why people ask it but that is the CIM rule. Excellent. Thank you. I think we may have come to the end of our questions today so we had quite a few there. So I'd like to say a big thank you to Kyran for presenting on this webinar and also thank you to our audience for attending. Once you leave today's webinar you will receive a survey on the presentation and we would really appreciate it if you could provide us with your feedback. So on behalf of CIM I'd like to thank you all for joining us today and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you all, bye bye.