After several months of consultations with industry insiders and academic experts, the Institute of Communication Agencies and York University’s Schulich Executive Education Centre have finalized the curriculum for their new Masters Certificate in Brand Communications program.
The non-degree program, which is geared to senior-level marketers and agency executives, will officially launch in January. In-class sessions will be split between Schulich’s location on the York campus and its downtown Toronto facilities.
According to Suzanne Filiatrault, director of professional development for the ICA, the course will be based on three core conceptual pillars: brand and communication mastery, thinking and creating, and innovation leadership.
Those enrolled will explore all of these elements in each of the three intensive week-long sessions—conducted over a nine-month period—that make up the academic foundation of the program.
Students will also be required to complete an individual research project and put their learning to use through a team exercise in which groups of four or five attendees work with a non-profit organization to solve a marketing challenge.
“At this senior executive level, it’s about more than what you learn. It’s about how you apply it,” said Filiatrault. “When we designed the program, we didn’t look at those months [in between class sessions] as months away from the program. We looked at it as time to apply the program.”
Instructors include executive coach Stephen Friedman and Alan Middleton, assistant professor of marketing and executive director at Schulich.
The curriculum was finalized following two brainstorming sessions held early in the year, where representatives from the advertising industry shared their ideas about the specific aspects and overall objectives of the program. A small group of industry leaders, including Filiatrault, worked with academics from Schulich to iron out the details, and the curriculum was ratified by stakeholders this summer.
“It was a very collaborative process,” said Filiatrault. “We’re staying true to the focus of our promise with this program, which is that it’s for the industry and by the industry.”
Filiatrault said Schulich is now accepting applications for the program, which is restricted to ICA members. All applicants must be sponsored by another ICA member to be considered.
Filiatrault adds that the ICA and Schulich are eyeing a first-year enrolment of 20 students and will accept no more than 30 applicants.
