For Omar de Silva, when launching FourthRev, it was all about reimagining higher education delivering career opportunities and outcomes for modern learners. 

Growing into marketing roles is a different journey for everyone. Some pathways are through higher education, and others land in marketing through their own career journey. When realising that in the industry there is a growing problem with the digital skills gap, de Silva decided it was time to accelerate the careers of those looking to advance their marketing skills.

What is FourthRev?

Created to give access to high-growth digital careers, FourthRev is the brainchild of de Silva and his business partner Jack Hylands. Described as a platform that “delivers life-changing experiences” it combines the best of career-focused education with leading technology companies and academic rigour. In short, FourthRev works with higher education facilities to bring career-focussed marketing, specifically digital marketing, into courses.

Founder de Silva spoke to Marketing mag about how it came to be.

“For us, it is about how we can work with universities to help them set up their students to land the best possible job. In this case, everyone wins,” he tells Marketing. “The universities win because they get to do a better job serving the students on what they are actually looking for. And, finally, the industry wins, because you have more people ready for work. Career-ready progressing and flourishing individuals.”

Partnering with the Melbourne Business School has been a huge win for FourthRev. Being Australia’s number one business school, it was an important opportunity to bring marketing directly into the business conversation. 

“To make it these days, you need to have some marketing knowledge – whether that be formal or informal,” de Silva explains. 

For FourthRev, it isn’t just about the straight textbook knowledge of marketing. It’s combined with the soft skills that marketers have. 

“We aren’t solely focused on the technical skills to do the task,” says de Silva. “We aim to teach you about the business acumen to understand why the task is actually relevant and worthwhile doing,” he finishes.

Making you a team member

The soft skills taught by the FourthRev available courses are also about building personal skills. For those with a wealth of knowledge and experience in marketing, it’s known that interpersonal skills can be just as important as market knowledge. FourthRev’s commitment is about enabling the best, and within that, teamwork and learning how to be within a marketing team is just as important, beyond marketing skills.

“I’m often asked marketing questions in a broad context, or an executive context, such as justifying spend and budget. People need to learn how to communicate these things effectively to their board or their team,” de Silva explains when asked about what is meant by learning more about soft skills.

FourthRev’s journey

Starting in 2019, FourthRev was originally created after sensing an ongoing digital skills gap that the world was facing. And it was an increasing problem. But, de Silva realised there is the opportunity to have programs and classes in place to close this gap. 

Partnering with higher education, FourthRev works with students to enhance their digital and marketing skills. And, he says, career outcomes are what is wanted most from the students. 

Find out more about enhancing your marketing skills.