The Importance of Skills Development is the Digital Marketing Space

At the beginning of the year, a report stated that the skills shortage is so critical in South Africa that companies were looking elsewhere for the skills that they need. In other words, they were preferring to import skills rather than invest locally in skills development. The industries that were the hardest hit were Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and engineering.

Developing skills in SA

Government has seen this problem and is attempting to do something about this skills shortage which is currently being experienced in South Africa. For example, it has emphasised skills development in Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). This means that if your company invests in skills development, especially for historically disadvantaged individuals, you may be awarded more B-BBEE points as opposed to an organisation who doesn’t make this investment.

In addition, the employers who pay over a certain amount in salaries and wages have to pay 1% of their turnover as a Skills Development Levy (SDL). These monies are collected by the Sectoral Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) and registered companies may claim from this fund for courses which are accredited with the SETA that they belong to.

Why skills development is necessary in the digital marketing space?

The world is going digital very, very rapidly. As a natural by-product, people are starting to favour shopping online as opposed to at shopping centres. We can see this in the stats:

• It is predicted that global retail e-commerce sales will reach US$4.5 trillion by 2021. (According to the current exchange rate, that’s about R62 trillion.) This is not a far-fetched figure as in 2017 global e-commerce sales stood at US$2.3 trillion (about R32 trillion).

This means that to reach online shoppers, marketing needs to switch from traditional marketing to digital marketing.

However, as we said in the first paragraph of this article, digital skills are reportedly lacking in South Africa. This means that a massive push needs to happen in terms of skills development in digital marketing.

Online learning = good for digital marketing skills development

It takes a massive amount of commitment for employees to upskill themselves. For example:

• Money has to be spent on course fees, and
• Time has to be spent on attending classes and putting assignments together.

The world of online learning has taken the world by storm as it offers students the ability to learn online in the comfort of their own homes and according to their schedule. These benefits are being realised. A study was conducted of US companies about their adoption of online learning. It was found that 77% of surveyed organisations facilitate online learning for their employees.

Online learning is also much less costly than face-to-face learning as the costs associated with holding classes – such as the hiring of the venue, the facilitator’s salary, etc. – do not factor in. With learning online, there is a once-off set-up fee and many students can do the course without incurring an additional costs on the learning provider’s part.

As digital marketing is a natural add-on for many people – for example a marketer will study to become competent in digital marketing – they will need to study while they work. Online learning allows them the flexibility to fit their studies in with their day-to-day lives and commitments.

Why the Digital School of Marketing is a good fit

The Digital School of Marketing was designed around online learning. We realised that people are increasingly preferring to study according to their own schedules. In addition, we recognised the fact that digital marketing is the skill to have if you want your business to fly in the future.

We specialise in the following digital marketing disciplines:

• Search Engine Optimisation
• Web Analytics
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising
• Digital Copywriting
• Content marketing

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

DSM is the only college to offer accredited education in the digital arena. We are accredited by the MICT SETA. We invite you to visit our website so that you can see how we can help you supercharge your career!