The merger brings together the strengths of Red & Yellow in classroom-based training and traditional marketing and advertising disciplines with Quirk Education’s excellence in distance-based learning and digital disciplines.

The merged learning institution is positioned to thrive in a market where agencies and corporate marketing departments are looking for people with integrated skill sets that span the traditional and digital marketing worlds.

“By combining the two institutions, we have created a single brand able to offer learning opportunities across a wide ambit of disciplines and approaches,” says Diane Charton, managing director at Red & Yellow. “We’re a true industry-focused institution that draws knowledge and inspiration from the industry to create course material that reflects the best thinking and practices from the global marketing and advertising sectors.”

Adds Charton: “We are able to offer a wide range of full-time, part-time and online courses that give students and marketing professionals the flexibility to learn at their own pace and in a way that is aligned with their needs. Those fresh from school can study full-time, but we also have a major focus on helping working professionals to up-skill and stay current with the latest trends in the fast-changing marketing world.”

Red & Yellow has ambitious plans for expansion during 2014, aiming to add a range of new qualifications and courses to the menu of options it offers its students. The fifth and latest edition of eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Marketing in a Digital World has been published, in time for the start of the academic year. The business also aims to expand to new locations – including Johannesburg and other African countries – over the next two to three years.

“As the brand grows, it will remain closely aligned with its original mission of providing practical training and education to aspiring and already-working marketing, communications and advertising professionals,” says Charton. The goal is to provide a service to the industry by feeding it with the work-ready people it needs to sustain its growth.

“We remain a neutral training provider that offers agencies, brands, and students practical training and education that is aligned with the needs of the working world,” she says. “But now we are able to offer deeper integration between the offerings of Red & Yellow and Quirk Education to help prepare young professionals for today’s multidisciplinary workplace.”

“Our aim is not only to help address a shortage of basic digital skills in the marketing communications industry, but to feed well prepared and experienced students back into the industry. Our graduates start work up to date with the latest digital skills and knowledge.”

With the unification of the Quirk Education and Red & Yellow brands under a single banner, the brand has unveiled a set of new logos. The logo lives in multiple states – with a number of variations on the ampersand – to emblemise how the school brings together disparate disciplines and keeps evolving to meet the changing needs of the industry, says Charton.