/ 3 October 2007

Vega innovates with new hybrid degree offering

Vega, The Brand Communications School, has launched a new degree in brand building and management to be offered from next year. The new degree is a hybrid offering combing components of a BA and a BCom that will provide a student with both a creative and strategic mindset.

Gordon Cook, the founder of Vega, said: “The establishment of the degree was born out of a need to provide the industry with graduates who are able to make a meaningful difference to 21st-century businesses. We want a new breed of thinkers who can provide creative and analytical approaches to developing and sustaining brands that create genuine value. In our view brands generate business so the process of brand building and management is critical for long-term success.”

The degree provides a unique combination of commercial and humanity subjects. “Vega’s approach comes off a humanities platform and considers commerce in the context of making a meaningful difference that creates and adds value to a complex set of stakeholders,” Cook said. “This hybrid approach to art in business is a global trend and the link to humanities is especially relevant to developing economies. This degree will encourage the development of new business models.”

Career options available to students after completing the degree include:

  • Brand/product management;
  • Account/client portfolio management;
  • Communication management;
  • Marketing management;
  • Marketing research;
  • Corporate social investment and sponsorship management;
  • Business entrepreneurship; and
  • Business and media strategic management.

Students who enrol for the degree will be exposed to the socio-cultural dynamics of diverse markets as well as to the role of creativity and innovation in branding. This degree will combine theory with real- and new-world practical projects.

Some of the subjects in the degree include applied branding and marketing, economics and logistics brand-building, corporate social investment, innovation, new media, business management and many more. All subjects are taught in an integrated way. Students will also be exposed to real-life brand problems through brand challenges as well as by completing a four-week internship within their chosen field.

Students with a matric exemption as well as a pass on at least standard grade maths will be eligible for enrolment in the programme.

For more information, contact Claire Wallace at Vega, The Brand Communications School, on Tel 011 883 0130 or email [email protected]