Earlier this month I was invited to talk at Queen Mary’s Business Studies and Entrepreneurship course to the third year students. Of course I was honoured and humbled by this request as most of the students there were my age. I asked myself the question, what really stood between me and them? why was it not the other way round?

Now some might say that being influenced by family and being constantly involved in marketing might have something to do with it, and they would be right BUT that only goes to bolster my argument that the only real big difference between me and the students was experience.

As those that know me know, I was to go to Bournemouth University to study Advertising and it was in my gap year that i chucked it in and Rich and I cracked on with the youth conspiracy. Had I pursued that degree I would have only been ‘out’ a year. Chances are I would have gone for a graduate placement at an agency and began climbing the ladder.

The question/thought I now raise is, are university degrees the best way to learn marketing. I believe, no. Yes there is a vast amount that can be learnt on these course and god knows i wish i knew a quarter of it but this industry of marketing and advertising is evolving at such a high pace that by the time it hits a text book or a lecture hall its out of date.

So what is the alternative?

Not everyone has the fortune of being inspired and influenced by family like myself and there are not enough jobs for every marketing student out there to just get involved with brands and agencies.

I have friends and family pursuing apprenticeships, apprenticeships in everything from plumbing to air-conditioning.

The Dictionary definition of an apprenticeship is:

a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices (or in early modern usage “prentices”) or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships. Most of their training is done on the job while working for an employer who helps the apprentices learn their trade, in exchange for their continuing labour for an agreed period after they become skilled. Theoretical education may also be involved, informally via the workplace and/or by attending vocational schools while still being paid by the employer.

I am putting forward the motion for the creation of a Marketing apprenticeship making experience 90% of learning process.