Despite eye-rolling over a college course seen by some as too frivolous, influencing is a serious business valued at around $250 billion

This time last year, the announcement that South East Technological University (SETU) was launching a new course in content creation and social media led to a flurry of tongue-in-cheek media reports about Ireland’s first “degree for influencers”.

Some may roll their eyes at the rise of influencers promoting brands to their social media followers and question whether it is too frivolous an area to turn into a degree, but the global influencer industry is a serious business, valued at around $250 billion.

For the first cohort of SETU’s “influencing degree” (four years for the level eight qualification, or three years for level seven) the course is a stepping stone not only into building an online influencing persona, but also to a vast web of other media and marketing career paths.

Harry Odife (22), from Kildare, packed in his job as a bank cashier to enrol in the SETU course, and pursue his dream of becoming a travel influencer and podcaster. “Telling people you are going to do influencing or content creation, people just laugh. You have friends doing law and all these big courses, and they look at you and say, what kind of job can you actually get from doing content creation?” he said.

Odife hopes the course will give him the tools to turn his interests into an actual income, through the likes of paid brand trips or partnerships.

“My friends tell me that I like talking a lot, so I thought if I talk that much I might as well make some money out of it. The course gives you the insight and the knowledge to be able to expand and to know more about how to grow your brand,” he said.

For others, the world of content creation and social media is an opportunity to forge a career outside of the traditional nine-to-five.

Jessica Flynn (19) from Kilkenny was diagnosed with autism at the age of 12, and says it is unlikely she would ever be able to work long term in an office job “due to the stress and how overwhelming it would be”.

“I’ve always had a love for creativity and storytelling, I’d love to be able to use social media as a medium to share my stories and to get to actually do that as a career,” she said, adding that the flexibility around remote working and hours are huge advantages for her.

Flynn adds that being in the first cohort of the undergraduate degree is a chance to be at the cutting edge of how the marketing industry is evolving.

“I remember first hearing about it and making jokes, like ‘oh what’s the homework, gaining five followers?’, but it’s actually super interesting. One of our classes is history of PR, and it’s so cool to see we’re really a part of history being in the course,” she said.

The degree offers modules in everything from digital marketing and data analysis, to journalism, entrepreneurship and hands-on training to produce photo, video, written and audio content.

This year’s class is small (around 22 students, the same as SETU’s other media related degrees), but attracted a lot of interest both in Ireland and internationally.

There were some 87 first preferences through the CAO system, with entry points reaching 307, and hundreds of expressions of interest.

The wide-ranging course has attracted the attention of budding entrepreneurs, including Favour Ehuchie (18) from Waterford, who braids hair and wants to open her own hairdressing business (and maybe influence on the side).

“I thought if I did the course it would definitely open up opportunities for me, if I wanted to create a business of my own,” she said.

Meanwhile, 18-year-old Leah Carroll has just finished a make-up artistry Post-Leaving Cert course, and is hoping the SETU course will help her start her own business or land a social media role with another make-up brand.

“I think [influencing] is more about business than being on Instagram and TikTok just making videos. I think the course is really well planned out, the content is very broad, so you’re learning a lot of things and you can get really anything from it,” she said.

The degree came off the back of a “digital hustle” summer school run by SETU in 2021, which touched a lightning rod in terms of demand among secondary school students; it was ten times oversubscribed.

SETU suspects that its new influencing-focused course is the first of its kind globally and has attracted applications from 17 different countries.

Denisa Lacinova (20) moved to Ireland from the Czech Republic to enrol in the course (she is so far loving Ireland, “except the weather”).

“I was always interested in social media. I just post for fun, not like content creation, but I admire the work and hopefully some time I will work for a PR company. I think it’s a huge opportunity, because I can always be the first who studied this,” she said.

As influencers have secured coveted broadcasting roles and political leaders are trying their hand at TikTok, the course is also attracting students looking for an edge in a more traditional career path.

Liam Reynolds (18) from Wexford has his eyes set on journalism, but decided to enrol in the content creation and social media course because it offered journalism modules and “a lot more”.

“It is a college course for influencers, but I don’t think that’s a negative thing. You see broadcasters and politicians like Simon Harris are using TikTok for their political campaigns. It’s just the direction things are going. Digital and influencing is probably one of the most important jobs in any department,” he said.

Programme director of the course, Irene McCormick, notes that public and media fascination with the new programme has been “driven by people who are older, and find it mind-boggling as to why this would be considered a job, and worthy of a tertiary level degree programme”.

But McCormick says the degree is catering to the demands of a rapidly professionalising sector.

“It’s growing exponentially. Marketers are realising that the way to customers is often through influencers, especially for younger people,” she said.

Research by Core last year found that in Ireland, 54 per cent of adults under the age of 30 look to influencers as their first port of call for information about a new product or brand.

McCormick adds that some brands (like Mattel in the US) have begun to hire in-house influencers.

“That shows a shift from the influencer being an outside contracted person to somebody who will be given a salary and brought into the fold. That is a big change,” she said.

She says the course will also offer advice and support for students on how to deal with the pressure of being in the public eye.

“There can be rotten aspects to it, with young people trying to figure out how to deal with being called names, abused and trolled and stalked. I’ve met influencers and it has had a huge impact on them,” she said.

Despite the novelty around the course, McCormick says that influencing is nothing new, and the degree is simply recognition of its latest iteration.

“Yes this degree is niche, but there are careers in this area and social media is such a huge part of everybody’s life. Influence has always been there, it’s just been more defined now and there’s pathways to saying it out loud,” she said.

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