Shortage of education, training and development for New Media professionals

The British Interactive Media Association (BIMA), in collaboration with the training consultancy, ATSF, have released findings from the first in-depth audit on education, training and development of new media professionals.

The report is called ‘UK iProfessionals. The research, conducted over the last 4 months reveals that very little training is done in the interactive sector. Business and communication skills training are also largely neglected, with very few taking courses even at middle management levels. The great majority of the sample were graduates, but very few had taken interactive media courses. This meant that just over three quarters of them had come into the sector without any specialist preparation. The sample commented freely on their higher education courses in the light of their experience.

Elaine England, Director at ATSF explains why training is so poor: “Client communication and internal issues take up a substantial amount of project time and as staff development is not part of the culture it gets pushed out by hectic work schedules. “Interestingly though, client communication is not considered a skill that might be improved through formal training. These skills are the pivotal processes for winning a project yet only two people had received training in them.”

Just under a third of the sample had had no formal training of any type at work. Informal on-the-job training from colleagues is the most widely attributed source of training followed by self-tuition. However, there was lack of recognition of the value of the informal coaching role taken by colleagues even though it accounts for the largest transfer of expertise within the sector.

James Sanderson, Chairman of BIMA says: “BIMA support this report as part of our initiatives to increase training and education within new media. The industry has matured now to a stage where it needs to recognise the need for a more structured and defined training program for staff. If we are to continue as a professional community then investing in the development of skills is a must and can only benefit the whole industry.”

Fifty telephone interviews were completed and each person was interviewed for an average of 40 minutes. Between them the interviewees used 43 role titles and came from the full range of large, medium, small and micro companies. Their jobs spanned middle management, design, production, specialist and support staff. The UK iProfessionals report is available from www.bima.co.uk

September 20th, 2002