Students celebrate graduation from ADMA’s annual Suit School at Argyle pub in the Rocks – Robyn Banks wins student of the year

This year’s crop of bright young “suits” enrolled in ADMA’s annual Suit School were feted at a graduation party at the historic Argyle pub in the Rocks last week on Wednesday, November 19.

The students were led by Robyn Banks (left), a full-time personal assistant in stakeholder and investor relations, with Stockland, Australia’s largest diversified property group – who was chosen best student of the year by Suit School’s tutors. There were 12 students enrolled in the 2012 course.

ADMA Suit School runs for eight weeks once a year and will start 29 August 2013. Interested students can register here.

Linda Jones (right), head tutor and CEO Recruit Direct, said Banks was an outstanding student.

Says Jones: “Although quiet in class, her assignments really were a real stand out. She obviously took everything in and applied it to her homework.”

Banks has also worked as a marketing assistant for SVG Investment Managers and as a personal assistant at Citigate Dewe Rogerson, a PR company in London.

A colleague recommended she take the course for her career development.

Says Banks: “I really wanted to win as I’m passionate about the industry and the course was insightful. The guest speakers were amazing.”

A former senior agency client leader, Jones developed the idea for Suit School three years ago and approached ADMA about running the school together. Suit School is mainly attended by junior account executives working in agencies who need additional coaching and skills to progress further up the ladder.

Says Jones: “There’s only so much learning at university. Key skills like budget management, building client relationships and writing a good brief are really only learned on the job but sometimes senior staff are too busy with their own work to pass on the skills, much as they want to. This is where Suit School can help.”

Suit School offers a blend of skills and current knowledge to help the ‘budding suit.’ Each week there are industry guest speakers who freely give their time and share their knowledge in specific areas like creative brief writing, how to work effectively with creative teams, client relationships, production (digital, print, DRTV), media planning, data planning and financial management.

Says Jodie Sangster, ADMA CEO: “With six assignments and an exam in just eight weeks the workload reflects the world of the busy account executive.

“And the content is constantly evolving to keep up with the fast-changing world of marketing.”