A new Master’s and portfolio program at the University of Colorado Boulder has been founded to fill a training gap in the industry that continues to widen with the rise in AI.
“The industry needs this now more than ever,” said Jeff Gillette, a former agency executive who is now an advertising professor at the university and founder and co-director of the new Master’s and portfolio program. “[The industry] dies without a new generation coming in. Because [executives are] moving so fast and are squeezed so tightly, the industry doesn’t have the capacity to educate them. This is a moment where education really needs to step up and solve the problem.”
Increasingly, ad executives are looking to portfolio schools to provide hands-on training to junior professionals that they don’t have the time or resources to provide adequately themselves, as they manage leaner staffs amid mass layoffs and a shift to project work that has leaders constantly pitching.
AI is now compounding the already widespread issue because some entry-level jobs are at risk of even existing in the future, due to the tech being able to automate certain tasks normally handled by junior employees, so it’s not entirely clear what roles young professionals should be trained to take. In response, advertising schools are trying to supplement and prepare this cohort of talent as best as they can to enter the industry. They’re doing this by tweaking their curricula to focus on skills that will remain relevant even in the wake of AI.
Of course, schools alone will not be able to fix all the issues that exist around the lack of training and mentorship in the industry, but some people interviewed said at least it’s a start.
