Vietnam Digital Academy introduces first ever digital marketing workshop to bridge talent gap

The appetite for digital marketing skills has significantly grown in recent years, and there is a serious digital talent gap to meet growing demands for new media marketing skills. New research from VietnamWorks indicates that out of nearly 7,000 jobs for experienced marketing positions, 4,000 mentioned they need digital skills. There have been 196,593 job applications for digital marketing roles just in the last year alone (April 2014 – May 2015).

With almost 50% of a ninety million strong population online, digital platforms are fast becoming an efficient, creative and cost-effective way for brands to reach consumers. New jobs in the sector are being created every day but the talent gap has yet to be bridged. From IT to marketing to finance to business planning, digital marketing growth means that the scale of training and re-skilling will be need to happen quickly and become continuously dynamic in order to meet the demand of better industry digital practices.

This year, the Vietnam Digital Academy (VDA) has been established in response to a growing skills gap in the communications industry. It is Vietnam’s first training centre dedicated to digital learning, and aims to builds digital leaders in areas of social media, search engine marketing, digital communications strategy, analytics and mobile.

In anticipation of the launch, VDA, in partnership with leading job portal VietnamWorks, along with organising partner FaceDigital, have joined forces to bring communications and marketing

professionals a 1 day hands-on workshop, named Digital Kickstarter.

The Digital Kickstarter workshop is open to all levels of digital marketing knowledge and ideal for new beginners to the industry. It has been designed to give participants an introduction to digital marketing basics and gives industry insight into digital marketing & communications as a potential career. Participants will receive a real digital marketing brief during the program and work in teams on practical exercises as they are guided through digital strategy, using paid/owned/earned channels to formulate a plan, implementing tactics like Facebook ads, navigating through SEM, mobile and content marketing and a look into measurement and analytics. At the end of the program, participants submit a final digital marketing plan with the opportunity to discuss and receive feedback on their proposals from leading industry experts from companies like Unilever, AKA Digital, MMA Vietnam, Maker Studios, Mediacom and Daybreak Digital.

Paul Espinas, Marketing Director for VietnamWorks says, “In VietnamWorks, we believe in helping people move up. Our partnership with VDA and FaceDigital for this event helps us equip marketing professionals in Vietnam with skills and know-how on digital marketing, one of the most scarcest skill sets in the market.”

VietnamWorks recently launched their Marketing Jobs microsite in an effort to help promote

marketing careers in Vietnam. Dacey Calisura, Managing Director for VDA believes that “by lifting digital marketing standards in Vietnam, the entire industry will benefit in better practices that are world-class resulting in improved results for clients and brands alike”.

Thao Dung, Director at FaceDigital, a leading digital agency in Vietnam said, “The initial response to Digital Kickstarter has been phenomenal and we are excited with being involved at organising a real digital workshop that is hands-on and practical. This can only mean good things for the industry and our clients.”

Digital Kickstarter will be held on June 17 at The Equatorial Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. Tickets are available at digital.vietnamworks.com and start from 800,000 VND pp (ex VAT), limited spaces are available.