Have you noticed that Search Engine Marketing education seems to be the flavor of the month right now? Look at all the education-related events that have happened in the past month:

• Matt Spiegel of Search Engine Watch talked about the biggest crisis in SEM: the lack of qualified search marketers and the need for further education and internships to address this crisis.
• We heard about the launch of Market Motive, a new, subscription-based training website founded by Michael Stebbins and John Marshall, both formerly from ClickTracks and Avinash Kaushik, a web analytics guru.
• Search Marketing Now announced a SEM Basics training webinar to be held this month.
• Search Engine Strategies announced SEM training classes will follow their Chicago conference this month.
• SEOmoz held a SEM training seminar at the University of Washington. (Ok this occurred in October, but it was still recent enough to warrant inclusion).
• The eMarketing TalkShow held a webcast about the unlimited career opportunities available to persons with SEM training and experience.
• Search Engine Watch decided to launch a regular column called SEM.edu dedicated to SEM training and education.
• Microsoft announce their training and accreditation program for Microsoft adCenter called adExcellence.

It’s great to see the industry better addressing the two problems that have plagued it for years: the lack of trained professionals and the lack of educational options for webmasters wanting to learn SEO/SEM.

Of course my Search Engine College colleagues and I recognized this in 2004 with the launch of our courses, but I digress!

Spread the joy!