IPA Makes Training Courses, Qualifications and Exams Free until October

The IPA is making its entire training suite of courses, qualifications and exams free for IPA member agencies, their employees, and individual members for six months, until 2 October 2020. The move, announced today (6 April 2020), has been made in recognition of the financial, emotional and physical impact that COVID-19 is having on agencies and their employees.

This new suspension of fees for its entire portfolio and for all exams taken during the period will allow IPA members to use furlough or any other downtime during this time of crisis to enhance their qualifications in a range of industry areas, with no associated costs for them or their employers.

Available courses include Building Better Client Relationships, Applied Behavioural Economics and Production Lite, while available qualifications include the Digital Performance Certificate, LegRegs and the Commercial Certificate, with many more (see list below). All will be delivered safely online. with the courses broken down into digestible formats. Some of these offerings are MIPA-certified allowing individuals to work towards becoming an Accredited MIPA. MIPA status is the industry’s most robust badge of professionalism, designed to put adland’s employees on the same footing as accountants, architects and lawyers.

Says Paul Bainsfair, director general, IPA: “The impact of COVID-19 has meant agencies are having to make some incredibly tough decisions – whether that’s budget tightening, or furloughing, or redundancies. While investing in professional development provides long-term financial gain, contemplating any additional discretionary costs may simply not be possible for agencies or individuals at this present time.

“By making our full range of training free for our members until 2 October, we will ensure agency staff, including any furloughed individuals, have access to stimulating, relevant and purposeful materials that will contribute to their on-going wellbeing in a time of mental stress. We also want to help IPA member agencies stand themselves in the best professional stead throughout the downturn and in its aftermath.”

Any IPA members who have already paid for IPA courses, qualifications or exams due to begin between now and 2 October 2020 will be reimbursed by the IPA.

The full list of IPA courses and qualifications comprises:

Online courses and workshops

- You Don’t Need to be Creative to be Creative

- Storytelling and Making Complex Arguments Buyable

- Training Forum

- Data Literacy Skills

- How to build strong client relationships (and additional resilience workshop)

- Production Lite (MIPA)

- Take Control of Briefs

- Applied Behavioural Economics (MIPA)

- Prototyping Creative Content Ideas

- Managing People Intelligently

- CPD Best Practice Webinar

- CPD Gold Webinar

- Take Control of Briefs

- Take Control of Time

Online qualifications

- Foundation Certificate exam

- Digital Performance Certificate exam

- Eff Test Certificate exam

- LegRegs Certificate exam

- Commercial Certificate exam

Exclusions from this scheme:

1. Bespoke training.

2. Courses and qualifications which began before 31 March 2020 and those which are scheduled to begin after 2 October 2020.

3. Some courses have limited availability and will be on a first come, first served basis.

Find out more, including course availability and booking deadlines, as well as the full terms of participation, here.