'Adwise Academy helps reduce shortage of professionals with digital skills'

Digital savvy

"Talents with the right digital skills are able to use these tools effectively to make a valuable contribution to their company or organization. Digital savvy staff can also learn faster and adapt better to new technologies and platforms, which is crucial in a rapidly changing world," explains Gijs Westerbeek. He is founder and CEO of Adwise - Your Digital Brain, Adwise Academy and WisePeople, all three under the umbrella of Wise Fundaments Group.

Since July 2014, Adwise Academy and WisePeople are no longer part of Adwise. Making the operating companies independent allows them to grow better. Gijs: "That has to do with our joint proposition: we want to give customers a decisive lead in the market with smart innovations and creative solutions. There is an important form of sustainability in that. We really want to help companies move forward. As an agency, we don't do a quick trick, but we help our clients as a strategic partner to do it better and better themselves. For example, we do in-house agency building and advise companies on how to deal with your culture, structures, and KPI settings. We also advise what skills are needed with respect to their marketing strategy, and that's how you end up with recruitment and training."

The shortage of professionals with digital skills is one of the main threats to the government's ambition for the Netherlands to be and remain a leader in technology and innovation. "The shortage of personnel is enormous and more people with the right IT skills are also needed within marketing, communication and recruitment. Development is a continuous process. It's not about 'just taking a course'. We will have to keep learning and developing very consciously. And if you ask me, that goes hand in hand with getting to know yourself better. That is why we are also investing heavily in self-awareness training, development methodologies and leadership development in addition to the crème-de-la-crème of professional training," adds Gijs.

The Netflix of learning

To this end, Adwise Academy plans to establish "the Netflix of learning" model in 2023. This will allow organizations and professionals to purchase a subscription from the training provider for unlimited learning, both in hard and soft skills. Gijs: "For, say, five tens a month, you can keep developing yourself continuously, whether it's snackable content of 10 minutes at a time, a full-fledged professional training, a coaching session or a training in which you further develop your leadership style. You will receive tailored advice and suggestions for interesting training courses for your profile or the position you aspire to. This way you always get the best out of yourself."

Adwise employees are already using this learning model. In the first quarter of this year, the platform will be tested for the first time by externals with the participants of Adwise Academy's Continuous Learning Program. Gijs expects that in five years, tens of thousands of digital professionals will be using the learning platform. He expects Adwise Academy to be primarily focused on content development in the near future. "We want to develop the best training courses - alone or together with third parties - and then distribute them to the right target groups. This involves content in various forms. We have built a new studio where we can develop that content ourselves and add it to that online learning environment. We want to continuously nurture people in their development." Progress and gaps in knowledge and skills can soon also be monitored for external professionals via Adwise's new Learning Management System (LMS).

1. Marketing Automation and writing texts with AI

Gijs: "Marketing automation ensures that marketing processes become increasingly efficient and that companies are able to connect with their target audience in a relevant way. As a result, marketing efforts will pay off better and companies are better able to achieve their goals." Other key developments include Google Analytics 4 (the successor to Universal Analytics) and conversational commerce (a form of e-commerce where customers can purchase products and services through chatbots or other forms of conversational technology, such as social media, messaging apps or voice assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Home).

Content writing is expected to increasingly use chat tools that use AI, such as GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer). Developed by OpenAI, this language model is capable of quickly generating text for websites, newsletters or social media, for example, based on a limited number of prompts. "Copywriters will therefore have to continue to develop and further strengthen their skills in order to continue to meet clients' demand for high-quality texts. Creativity and knowledge of what you write about will become increasingly important in this regard," Gijs expects.

2. Training at Champions League level

Staying up to date is also absolutely essential for marketing professionals and marketing managers in order to remain successful. Only by keeping abreast of the latest developments and trends can you ensure that your company or organization continues to perform well in the digital world. One of the biggest plus points of Adwise Academy is depth in the digital domain. Gijs: "Our professional training courses are at Champions League level. We bring in award winning cases and the trainings are often delivered by Adwise's top talents who excel in their field. And if you look beyond the profession itself, we have a very clear vision of people development. Ultimately, subject matter is only part of how people develop. It starts with self-awareness training and the human skills side. Who am I? What do I want, what am I good at and what do I want to develop further in? This is where we guide organizations and professionals. There are few parties that do full-service in-house agency building and thus help organizations accelerate, which of course is only possible if you work with professionals who continue to develop 24/7."

Research shows that at least 30% of employees leave their employers due to lack of prospects or development opportunities. In fact, for younger generations, development has become more important than salary. In addition, about 30% of professionals switch employers because of poor leadership from their manager or board. Gijs: "That means that leadership development and training your staff is essential for the retention of people within organizations. Certainly not unimportant in this tight labor market."

3. Continuous Learning Program

Adwise Academy is capitalizing on this development with the Continuous Learning Program (CLP). This development program where online marketers and managers are updated one day a month on the latest trends and developments offers another important advantage: sparring with peers and trainers. "There are a lot of companies that only have one or two people within the marketing department. They often have no sparring partners within the organization or picture of how to develop. With this, you run the risk that the marketer may be good today, but a little less so tomorrow, doing the wrong thing professionally or not working efficiently and effectively."

In addition, according to the Adwise CEO, as an employer you run the risk that that conscious marketer is gone very quickly because he or she sees no long-term development opportunities within the organization. "With the CLP we can bring and keep those people up to date and they can share experiences and ask advice from our trainers and the other participants. This way they are professionally challenged and they stay longer within the organization."

4. Screaming shortage of data transition specialists

Finally, he sees a major challenge in training enough experts who can manage the digital transformation. "In particular, there are far too few data transition experts, such as data analysts, data scientists and data engineers. We see third-party data disappearing and it's becoming increasingly important to have your first-party data in order. Our vision is, "Smarter data leads to smarter marketing," because everything is becoming algorithmic. The way I see it, you can make a difference on two fronts: by putting smarter data in and by being more creative. In that area, you will have to constantly evolve. Only then will you achieve and maintain your edge!"