By David Jenkin

Graduates in the creative industry often arrive in the workplace unprepared for many challenges – what are the most common areas of weakness that you’ve encountered?

The ability to multi-task, work under pressure and meet deadlines. Unfortunately, where graduates may have learned the theoretical skills they need for the real world, until such time as they’re under the tight demands of agency life, they don’t get to experience the learned act of juggling 100 balls without dropping any, and keeping a smile on their faces. 

How will the Brandnewbies programme aim to address such skill gaps? 

With our Brandnewbies getting stuck into the day-to-day working with our many clients and projects, they will soon learn how everything is urgent, to think creatively and cleverly under time limitations, and how to declutter to get to the final answer or result. Our programme will teach them to focus on the challenge at hand while honing their ability to think and act fast.

Would you agree with the claim that such internship programmes are lacking in the industry?  If so, why might that be the case? 

Yes, coaching and nurturing graduates can take up a lot of internal resources, time, and energy which many agencies don’t have to spare. But at Brandnew Creative, we see the benefit in mentoring these bright young minds, while learning from their perspective at the same time. 

How can an agency like Brandnew benefit from such a programme? 

We’re aiming to breathe even more innovation and out-the-box thinking into Brandnew Creative through this initiative, while extending our circle of influence and connection. Couple this with the fact that all Brandnewbies will fall into the ‘millennials’ category, which will assist us with getting even deeper into the minds and actions of this ever-valuable target market, and we believe we have a winning programme concept. 

What has the response been like so far? 

We have been inundated with CV’s, with around 50 great candidates showing interest since we advertised the initiative a week ago. We will be choosing the lucky seven by the end of the month, so that they can kick-off their real world training come Wednesday, 1 March.

For more information, visit www.brandnewcreative.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.