The Marketers Association of Zimbabwe held its first graduation ceremony for the year 2020 which saw graduates from three different programs graduating with certificates in Digital Marketing, Business Leadership and ZimChartered Marketer.

The graduation ceremony held at a local hotel on February 28, 2020 hosted 141 new Digital Marketers, 13 Business Leadership and 13 ZimChartered Marketers.

MAZ Head of Academics, Mr Godfrey Dube commended the Association for the pride they took in hosting such ceremonies as they are evidence that the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe has become a centre for knowledge as well as career development for marketers and related professionals.

“Today we have 141 students graduating with a certificate in Digital Marketing.  We launched the Digital Marketing course in 2016 and we are excited at the level of uptake it has received from the marketers and its relevance in the profession,” remarked Mr Dube.

He highlighted that the importance of Digital Marketing cannot be overemphasised.

“The world is going digital and it is imperative for every marketer to have the latest digital communication and marketing skills in order to stay relevant. Nowadays, clients and audiences are found on the digital space hence every marketer has to occupy those spaces and can only be able to do so through requisite knowledge, hence the need to study Digital Marketing,” explained Mr Dube.

Mr Dube implored the ZimChartered Marketers to continue professional development. In his call to the newly graduated professionals he implored;

“Fellow colleagues, I challenge you as marketers to make a mark in your organisations, be innovative, bold and strive to be different. It is only those that make a mark that can live up to today’s market demands. As Marketing Practitioners work on influencing the community towards marketing so that it values marketing through your acts”.

MAZ Vice President and Head of PR and Communication for Nedbank, Mrs Dedrey Mutimutema, shared an inspirational story on her journey to success.

Mrs Mutimutema who rose from being an intern to heading PR and Communication for Nedbank attributes her success to hard work and determination.

“Be able to balance your priorities. Work, Family, as well as your spiritual time.  Be intentional about your vision. Start walking towards that which you want,” she said.

She encouraged graduates to be principled and focused.

“Always be prepared. Never stop learning. Hard work never killed anyone!” exclaimed Mrs Mutimutema.

Ms Judith Manyeruke from Wealth Talk Media shared her experience with a ZimChartered Marketer student attached to her organisation.

“As wealth talk media, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe for enlisting our company to receive a Chartered marketing student

During the 12-month period that we received this mentorship a lot of changes happened in our company. I can safely say we moved from a basic ‘museyamwa business’ to actually being a corporate,” she said.

She said they recorded major changes in client management strategy, moved from one revenue stream to four revenue streams, diversified, moved into publications and registered a company in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Business Leadership graduate, Miss Flora Ngwenya said the program was very insightful.

“It was a very easy-going training where we were learning from leaders, the likes of Herbert Nkala, Shingi Munyeza, Eve Gadzikwa among others. These are leaders who have been tried and tested, it’s obvious at some point they were failing but you learn from your mistakes and continue improving.

So, they were sharing with us all those processes and steps that they went through. Issues of ethics in business, issues of effective decision making, both at individual and corporate level,” said Miss Ngwenya.

She added:  “Can you lead a corporate or an organisation when at individual level you are not organised? Certainly not! So, it starts with the individual – if for the rest of your life you are a person who is always late and rushing beating traffic and making shortcuts, are you sure you can lead a corporate?”

Ends//