The young person hoping to break into advertising in 2025 faces a peculiar arithmetic: entry-level positions now require two years of experience, which presumes some earlier entry level that has since been walled off.

The Effie Lions Foundation is attempting to address this paradox with Voices of the Future, a fellowship program that launched in April and will shepherd 12 high school and college students through eight months of training in marketing fundamentals, leadership, and what is now called "AI fluency." The program, which is fully funded, includes a trip to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and concludes with paid apprenticeships at agencies and brands.

The cohort was drawn from more than 200 applicants across 10 countries, according to Allison Knapp Womack, chief executive of the foundation. Frederique Covington Corbett, a professor of global leadership, is serving as dean.

"A degree isn't enough to get you into the industry anymore," Ms. Knapp Womack said. "You have to have networks, and you have to have AI fluency. And that's before you're even in your first job."

She described the program as "a structural answer to a structural problem," built around marketing strategy, creativity, and effectiveness, but also communication and what she called "the art of selling ideas." (In an industry that sells ideas for a living, one might have hoped this was already part of the curriculum.)

"In this new AI world, soft skills are the new hard skills," Ms. Knapp Womack said — a formulation that suggests the definitions of both may be shifting underfoot.

Magda Pawelec, senior director and head of brand marketing at Whirlpool, is serving as a mentor. She urged fellows to "be bold," while acknowledging the terrain has grown considerably more treacherous since her own start.

"Every day is an ongoing transformation," Ms. Pawelec said, "and young people need to keep up as they can lose their relevance so quickly."

It is, perhaps, the first thing the industry teaches.

Original story published in adweek.com: "Marketers From Adobe and Whirlpool Share What They Wish They Knew Starting Out"