Curiously, for an industry that seems to have lost its automatic right to the best of the new generation of graduates, learning opportunities and professional qualifications in advertising are better than they have ever been.
In a current job posting on The People Place, a job recruiting website for the telecommunications, aerospace/defense and engineering industries, an anonymous electronics company in Angleton, Texas, advertises for a "Quality Engineer". Qualifications for the job are the usual: computer skills, oral and written communication skills, light to moderate lifting.
"Privately academics will complain about the failure of prospective students to take demanding courses – in maths, natural science, languages and the humanities but publicly they do not properly advertise that some courses and qualifications are better preparation for higher study".
For example the Department for Education and Employment recently advertised for board members of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority: "Membership is part-time (about 20 days a year) and unpaid".
The analyses do not support (1) statin use to reduce heart attacks in women based on extrapolation from men, or (2) approving or advertising statins as reducing heart attacks without qualification in a population that includes many women.
The HON code requires health information website owners to abide by eight principles: to indicate the authors' qualifications, information sources, funding sources and advertising policy and to maintain confidentiality, etc.
You may find you aren't quite sure what to do with your degree once you graduate, and find yourself knowing you're capable of the mathematical jobs you see advertised, but have no qualification to prove it.
While (worryingly) you can legally advertise yourself as a personal trainer without any qualifications, most gyms require at least a level 3 personal training qualification.
Although the law requiring label disclaimers does not explicitly apply to advertisements, many print ads, like the glossy pamphlets touting herbal products in Vietnamese drugstores, include such qualifications to avoid being accused of deceptive advertising.
What I love about advertising is that there is no formal degree, no qualification needed.
An academy in Leeds has become a lightning rod for the controversy over teaching qualifications after posting a job notice that advertises two posts of unqualified teacher of maths.
