The Institute of Data & Marketing (IDM) is overhauling its online courses as part of a strategy to help marketers boost their skills in social media and GDPR.
The move follows the publication of the Data Privacy: An Industry Perspective 2019 report, which showed that marketers reckon they have not received enough training to comply with GDPR.
According to the online survey, while 65% of respondents felt they had received the right training on key data privacy issues, 20% said their employers were not implementing ongoing training and 21% said they had not received enough training to be compliant with GDPR in the first place.
Additionally, 18% of marketers said the GDPR expert who conducted their training did not have enough experience in marketing. The report also highlights that a fifth of marketers (20%) say their organisations are not implementing ongoing training plans, thereby putting their businesses at risk.
The findings of the study, published last month, reinforced concerns that a new “almost compliant is close enough” attitude emerging over the regulation as business priorities shift.
A recent study by Egress revealed that the greatest level of investment in the past 12 months has been made on implementing new processes to govern the handling of sensitive data (cited by 28% of respondents), followed by the auditing of what data is collected and why (18%), hiring data protection officers (18%), and implementing new cybersecurity technology (17%). Fewer than one in 14 firms (7%) had prioritised GDPR training.
The IDM’s new courses are intended to make online learning as effective as face-to-face sessions.
General manager Andy Dorling said: “Our industry never stands still, and so businesses and their marketers must be equipped with the latest skills and insights that reflect the evolving demands of the customer. Marketers want learning solutions to be relevant, practical and interactive – our revamped online training puts these themes at its very core.”
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