Marketers with post-grad qualifications earn on average 15 per cent more than peers, achieving a salary of £61,524 a year*, a new report by EMR has shown.
However, 80 per cent of the marketers surveyed said they do not feel post-grad qualifications are essential to career progression.
The majority of marketers surveyed (79 per cent) did not think, or did not know whether, marketing qualifications are keeping up with the changing demands of the industry. Only 21 per cent of marketers felt marketing qualifications were adequate.
In order to stay relevant, 63 per cent of marketers believed that priority should be given to digital skills in marketing qualifications and courses.This growing focus on digital is again reflected in the rise of digital specialists – the proportion of digital specialists has risen from five per cent of respondents in 2010/11 to 25 per cent in 2013/14.
Despite these stats only 35 per cent of marketers had any specific digital training in the past year but a majority, 66 per cent, are looking to address this over the next year.
Simon Bassett, MD of EMR, said: “Despite the clear link between post-graduate qualifications and increased salary, marketing professionals do not believe that these are essential to career progression. The reality is that the role of the marketer has changed significantly over the last five years, which is seen in the importance marketers now attribute to a digital element in marketing qualifications.
“But there’s also much more pressure for marketers to produce a tangible and demonstrable ROI and today they are required to have as much an analytical head as a creative head – hence the value of post-grad qualifications and the particular premium attached to an MBA.”
B2B Marketing runs a comprehensive training programme and will be launching a certificate, in association with the IDM, in January 2015.
*The 751 respondents were predominately marketing managers and senior marketers based in the South East and London area.