He was speaking at the awards ceremony for the winners of the 2005 IDM National Student Direct Marketing Competition last month.
The IDM Trust invests £250,000 a year to fund student training in direct, data and digital marketing skills. Patrons donate between £1,000 and £2,000 a year to the scheme.
Holder said the IDM needed "20 new patrons to stem the churn this year" and revealed that the programme had "nearly closed down" 18 months ago due to a shortage of funding. After the dinner the IDM said that 80 per cent of companies invited to be patrons had done so.
Tim Bonnet, CEO of Tequila\London, said his agency was renewing its patronage. "We hired two graduates from the scheme last year and are really seeing the benefits," he said.
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