The Marketers Forum - UK Marketing Courses CIM, CAM, MRS Qualifications - London and South East England

The Marketers Forum have provided CIM marketing courses in many formats residential, saturday and part time evening, if you would like to find out about our residential weekend in please read on. However If you would like more information on our CIM courses please click here ---->

The 5^th-7^th November 2010 saw The Marketers’ Forum second-ever Residential Weekend take place. Fifty TMF marketing delegates left the hub bub of London for the gentler pace of the Hampshire countryside, to embark on an intense weekend of case study analysis in preparation for their exam at the end of the month.

With a week to read up on their respective case studies, the CIM Professional Certificate, Diploma and Postgraduate Diploma teams arrived at the hotel on Friday evening fully prepared to take on the case study and win.

After a delicious evening buffet in the barn and a night cap at the bar it was early to bed in preparation for a full days work on Saturday.

Hard at work!

With all 3 groups assigned a tutor and split across the hotel into different training rooms, the hard work began. Between 9am and 5pm delegates worked in small teams within their groups, tearing apart, analyzing and making sense of the case study. Punctuated with tea breaks and lunch, the first day was long but ultimately rewarding.  At 5pm prompt, delegates downed pens and sloped off to enjoy 2 hours of leisure time before supper at 7pm. Some made use of the hotel gym, pool and spa facilities, others power napped or took in a movie, whilst a few hit the bar!

An evening feast in the barn was followed by a quiz, testing delegates music, marketing and general knowledge. Fuelled by a few drinks, the quiz enabled everyone to let their hair down and socialize.  Whilst most people hit the hotel bar once the quiz had ended, a studious few went back to their rooms to rest up for the following day. Although not encouraged (!) a fair amount of booze was consumed that night and culminated in a drunken ‘TMF’s got talent’, with delegates (and tutors) outdoing each other with their best party trick.

A fry up the next morning was the best cure for a few sore heads before training began again at 9am. By 3pm it was a wrap and it just remained for a de-brief in the barn, complete with a short video of unseen footage of the previous night’s antics, before delegates boarded the coach back to the station.

The weekend was a resounding success, as some of the comments below will testify. It just remains to be seen now if exams are passed and great results attained! Watch this space!

“I found it very worthwhile to analyse the case study in such detail with everyone in the class.  There were a lot of good debates going on in our group. The hotel amenities were a bonus as well.  I used the Sauna on Saturday evening and it was a lovely way to de-stress after a very long day in a conference room.

The dinners were a great opportunity to network with those in the same level as well as those students doing the diploma and post grad levels.  It was great to get some first-hand information about the other levels, what they enjoyed and what they found challenging.  The quiz was very entertaining as well!”

Rosanna Spataro (CIM Professional Certificate)

“Thanks for a great weekend, very worthwhile and a right laugh also. I hope we weren’t too much of a handful for you!”

Laura Benfield (CIM professional Certificate)

“Weekend was excellent, great fun and very helpful”

Eli Georgieva (CIM Professional Diploma)

“It was both enjoyable and productive, a nice venue, well organised: so, successful all round from my point of view!”

Adam Bowden-Smith (CIM Professional Certificate)

“Thanks for organising a great weekend”

Alycia Wilson  (CIM Postgraduate Diploma)

Last weekend TMF took 50 delegates studying for their CIM case study module to Reading for their residential weekend. Each CIM level (Professional Certificate / Professional Diploma / Chartered Postgraduate Diploma) is levy to a case study exam and TMF like to do things a little differently, so for the past few years we’ve been delivering the case study modules intensively over a weekend from a hotel outside of London.

In the past we’ve used Norton Park Hotel in the leafy Hampshire countryside near Winchester, however this year we opted for the slightly grittier location of Reading in Berkshire. That’s not to say we scrimped on the hotel…oh no…disco balls, cocktails, zebra throws and a posh games room, were all glamorous additions to the Reading branch of Pentahotels. Whilst delegates did get to enjoy the fun side of the hotel in the evening, they were required to knuckle down during the day to get through all the case study work their tutors had planned for them!

The weekend schedule was fairly intense. Each CIM level had their own training room and spent the best part of Saturday and Sunday getting to grips with their relevant case study, preparing their analysis’ and sharing their ideas. With coffee breaks for much needed sugar hits and a delicious lunch each day, delegates were well fueled to tackle the heavy workload. On Saturday a break from 5pm – 7.30pm afforded delegates some free time to relax, use the gym, shoot some pool or hit the shops, before a lovely 3 course dinner in the ballroom in the evening. Whilst a movie night had been planned, complete with ice cream and popcorn, the draw of Eurovision and the hotel bar proved too much for the majority, who sloped off before ‘The Tourist’ began.

Sunday morning, there were far fewer sore heads than previous residential weekends (!) and certainly less misbehaving after hours – so most delegates were fresh to begin another day in the ring with the CIM case study. 3pm was the planned checkout and by that time everyone was ready to call it a day, having learnt more marketing models than they’d care to remember and dissected their case study to pieces. Whilst some delegates joked about brain ache at the end of the weekend, we think they all found the exercise extremely useful and a great preparatory session for their CIM case study exam in June!

“Thanks to you and Carl for organising the weekend! It was beneficial – well focused and structured.” – CIM Professional Diploma Delegate

Good luck everyone for the exams! We know you’ll rock ‘em!

The Chartered Institute of Marketing have recently reviewed their four accredited programmes. We have been advised of the revisions they will be introducing in 2009 to the titles and entry requirements.

In many respects we welcome the changes, albeit with some reservations.

We understand that the title of the CIM Professional Postgraduatre Diploma will be changed to include the word ‘Chartered’. This is definitely a good move. Providing the CIM promote the benefits of Chartered Marketer status effectively, this will increase demand for this level – specifically encouraging candidates to progress beyond the existing Diploma level.

Our concerns relate to the Diploma and Certificate levels. Currently, the magic word ‘diploma’ is all many candidates think they need, so they stop before progressing to the Postgraduate level.

This is worrying. We have a generation of marketers whose level of qualification is still firmly entrenched at an operational level.

Furthermore, every employer I have spoken to (including many senior marketers) are confused about the different levels. In some instances they erroneously believe they are interviewing a postgraduate rather than diploma level candidate.

Such confusion damages the reputation of CIM and all the qualifications offered.

There is still a yawning gap in all but name between the two top levels. We understand that the entry requirements and assessment of the Diploma programme will be made more demanding. However, where does this leave existing Diploma holders and perhaps more importantly employers? Are 2008 Diploma holders inherently better than earlier Diploma holders?

Sadly, much of this nonsense is caused by the CIM adhering to the demands of the QCA. There is no simple solution. For all concerned, we can only hope that these issues are addressed with the new proposals.