Where are the new ad people? Where are those whose living guts will grease the gears the industry's creative machine in the coming years. The question of whither the next generation has been posed by many concerned with commercial production. The answer is they're everywhere - the industry overflows with tales of ad legends who were salesmen or cattle ranchers in their former lives, But now, many more are arriving at work from ad schools where ad hopefuls go to help position themselves for the dream career in a changing industry.

The schools now processing these new ad people have also had to evolve with the industry, changing their curricula and their general thinking about how to crank out effective creative geniuses. Rather than just helping whip books into shape, those running ad schools must provide real skills, addressing the reality of right sizing at agencies, where on-the-job training is scarce, as well as preparing students for the demands of interactive agencies while instilling bigger and better brand-building skills.

When the Miami Ad School was sending interns to Internet-oriented Agency. Com, that company's request was for solid art direction talent, not computer geeks. "They wanted the ones who were going to be talking about concepts for the Web, not those who just had technical knowledge," says Miami Ad School founder Ron Seichrist. Seichrist says the evolution of the role and the scope of agencies is bringing about a whole new kind of advertising student, and the school's program has changed rapidly to reflect that reality. "There is a real emphasis now - and it's a great thing - back to the idea," says Seichrist. "Agencies want the people who think most creatively and most strategically -- and it's a given now that they're all good on computers." The six-year-old school currently has about 200 students enrolled. Seichrist says the list of courses students are faced with in their typical two-year program has tripled since 1979, when the ad veteran started the Portfolio Center in Atlanta, which he later sold. In addition to the "basics" are numerous computer-related courses, as well as a focus on TV production and post, with on-site editing facilities. "As soon as these students get on the job now, they are having to produce TV; that never happened before," says Seichrist. "Previously, you would have a few years training on the job. Agencies aren't doing that anymore; the students really have to use these skills."

Others in the field of education point to the same phenomenon and its effect on the grooming of new talent. "In the past, agencies would get young bright people and train them, but now they are not staffed up that way," says Diane Cook-Tench, head of the Ad Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. "Our grads are stepping in and doing major-level campaign work." Tench says the school is offering more training in TV and interactive areas, as well as providing access to the resources of the university and bringing in a variety of creative thinkers, like jazz musicians, poets and improv actors, to its creative thinking classes.