Rob Chamberlain Marketing Academy becomes HOSPA Learning Partner following quality review
The Hospitality Professionals Association (HOSPA) has endorsed the Rob Chamberlain Marketing Academy, recognising the CPD-accredited programme as meeting its standards for quality, relevance and professional value in hospitality learning and development.
The endorsement sees the Academy become an official HOSPA Learning Partner for the next two years. It represents another step towards raising professional standards across hospitality by recognising marketing as a discipline worthy of the same structured development afforded to operational, financial and leadership functions.
Developed specifically for hospitality and meetings and events professionals, the Academy was created to address what founder Rob Chamberlain believes is one of the industry’s most overlooked commercial challenges: marketing capability.
While hospitality businesses invest heavily in operational, service and sales development, marketing is often expected to be learned on the job. The result, says Chamberlain, is that many marketing teams become highly proficient at producing activity but receive little formal training in the commercial disciplines that underpin sustainable business growth.
“There’s a misconception that marketing is about creating content or managing social media. In reality, those are just outputs. Proper marketing begins with understanding customers, diagnosing commercial opportunities and challenges, making strategic choices and then executing them effectively.
Hospitality has invested enormously in developing operational excellence. I believe it’s now time that marketing capability was given the same attention.”
The Academy takes marketers through the full marketing process, from market diagnosis and research through to segmentation, targeting, positioning, objective setting, product, pricing, distribution and integrated communications. The programme is delivered entirely online, allowing busy professionals to learn at their own pace while continuing in full-time roles. It is also CPD accredited, with learners receiving 28 CPD points on completion.
Recent Ipsos research has highlighted the scale of the challenge, suggesting that only around one in three marketers meet basic marketing knowledge benchmarks, while those with formal marketing training are significantly more confident, more effective and more likely to deliver measurable commercial results.
As a HOSPA Learning Partner, the Academy has been independently reviewed against HOSPA’s endorsement framework, recognising its contribution to professional development within hospitality. The partnership will also create opportunities for closer collaboration on learning initiatives designed to strengthen marketing capability across the sector.
Janel Clark, HOSPA’s Head of Professional Development, commented:
“This endorsement reflects HOSPA’s commitment to supporting high-quality professional development across the hospitality sector, including in marketing. We were particularly impressed by the strength and structure of the Rob Chamberlain Marketing Academy, and by how clearly it addresses a key area of the industry which is ever evolving and often misunderstood. We’re pleased to welcome the Academy as a HOSPA Learning Partner and look forward to working together to help build marketing skills across hospitality.”
Rob Chamberlain added:
“I’m genuinely delighted to become a HOSPA Learning Partner. HOSPA has a long-standing reputation for championing professional standards across hospitality, so to have the Academy endorsed in this way is incredibly encouraging.
My ambition has always been simple: to make proper marketing training more accessible to hospitality professionals. Ultimately, it isn’t about teaching people how to create campaigns. It’s about helping businesses build stronger marketing capability. When everyone is working from fundamental principles, marketing becomes more consistent, more commercially focused and ultimately more effective.”
Academy enrolment is open now and available to both individual marketers and organisations looking to build marketing capability across their teams. Alongside individual enrolment, businesses can purchase group cohorts to create a shared marketing language, improve commercial decision-making and provide structured development for marketing teams across single or multi-site operations.
