Transformation through Skills Development

Sum of 21 Academy addresses two burning issues in the broader creative industry: Transformation and Skills Development.

Operating in an industry that is known and criticised for its notoriously slow transformation, Sum of 21 serves as a creative incubator that develops young talent so that they can successfully enter the creative industry as juniors in their respective fields.

This means that their future employees won’t have to spend a massive amount of time getting them ready to productively contribute towards outputs.

Innovative learnership/internship model

In essence, Sum of 21 offers a 12-month internship/learnership programme to young creatives and communicators. They gain this experience by working on real-life marketing briefs or client projects under the mentorship, guidance and coaching of dedicated senior staff members.

Unlike other internship/learnership programmes they don’t shadow the seniors in an advertising agency, and don’t work on fictitious or theoretical briefs.

The young creatives and communicators perform the actual work and gain the actual experience, while getting coached and mentored by industry veterans.

Innovative funding model

In order not to compete for the same money pool as advertising agencies, Sum of 21 is also structured in such a way that it can tap into corporate SA’s BEE spend.

Clients can tap into their Skills Development, Supply & Enterprise Development, or Socio-economic Development Spend, and in return value to our grantors, Sum of 21 executes marketing/communication and advertising services to the value of the grant.

In this process, the young creatives and communicators build a really exciting and practical portfolio, and gain valuable experience that will fast-track their careers.

While we are providing valuable workplace learning, Sum of 21 also provides the learners with a National Certificate in Advertising
(NQF Level 5).

Sum of 21 Internship

An internship at Sum of 21 is more than just getting a feel for the creative industry. It has been designed specifically to provide our interns with real-world skills and experience that will not only help them to acquire the skills employers are looking for, but also enable them to positively contribute to the creative industry. To that end, the internship gives learners the opportunity to complete and receive a National Certificate in Advertising (NQF Level 5) for the following disciplines:

Copywriting
Art Direction
Client Service

The course specifically caters to the industry and is given the Sum of 21 touch of magic, to ensure that our seniors’ experience, skills, and creativity is also taught to our interns during their tenure with us.

for more information regarding the National Certificate.

B-BBEE Solutions

Sum of 21 relies on the B-BBEE grant funding we receive from various industry partners to develop and ready a new generation of creative talent for an industry that is lacking professionals.

However, we don’t just ask for grants. The Sum of 21 magic lies in our ability to commoditise your BEE spend, allowing you to reinvest any transformation grant given to Sum of 21 back into your business.

How does it work?

For every R400 you donate, we give you 1 hour of creative work. You can use this budget of creative hours to brief Sum of 21 to solve your advertising, branding, and/or communication challenges, with world-class creative concepts and real-world application.

for more information regarding the National Certificate