Welcome to the latest edition of the LSC South East marketing ezine for providers and partners. Please find included details of campaigns we will be running over the coming months.

Get Maths Confident - New Skills for Life campaign launches in March

The gremlins have gone! We are building on the national ‘Our future. It’s in our hands.’ campaign and using 'hands' as puppets depicting characters - very hard to explain but visually looks great.

• On 17 March the TV, radio, magazine and press campaign will be launched.
  
  
• The campaign will target people with the lowest entry level maths - Entry levels 1 and 2 and aims to reduce people's fear and anxiety around maths (the biggest barrier by far according to research undertaken) and build their confidence to take up the challenge to go back to maths. The campaign will be called 'Get Maths Confident'.
  
  
• The campaign will run for 3 weeks and then be repeated in August. National press will be used for the March launch but swapped with cinema advertising in the August campaign.
  
  
• People will be encouraged to call 0800 660 800 for further information.  This will put them through to learndirect advisors, who can advise on a full range of scenarios, including sending out a DVD which explains more about learning basic English and maths. Callers will be offered to be transferred to nextsteps within office hours or have their details taken and passed on to nextsteps out of office hours.
  
  
• There will be a website supporting this campaign – it’s not yet live (but will be on the www.direct.gov.uk site) and you'll also be able to view the DVD here.
  

Campaign artwork and resources will be available to download from the campaign resources website at www.lsc.gov.uk/campaignresources.

Train to Gain update

Train to Gain advertising has been booked to appear on bus rears from 17th March, and Railway Station poster sites and billboards starting 24th March for 4 weeks (Billboards across the South East yet TBC).

Train stations included in the campaign are:

Bus routes included in the SE Region campaign:

EMA National Campaign Feb – Apr 2008

A new campaign is being launched nationally to promote the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). The TV campaign starts 24th March and no longer features ‘Spyman’ but instead uses hands in line with all other LSC marketing activity.

The emphasis for this activity is to encourage people to apply for EMA if they are eligible and also highlight the fact that EMA can be used towards a range of courses, both academic and non-academic.

Target audiences are students, teachers and parents and a wide range of appropriate media has been booked as follows:

• ‘My Choice’ and 1 x ‘My Money’ Colour Press ads (Youth lifestyle magazines)
  
• PR
  
• 1 x 40 second TV commercial and 1 x 30 second TV commercial
  
• Online advertising
  
• Posters and Postcards (Schools)

Teachers/Parents

• PR
  
• National Press ads (Education pages)
  
• Online (teachers)
  
• Direct communications

Students

Press

Appearing from 3rd March to week commencing 31st March 2008, advertorials and colour page ads have been booked in youth related magazines. These publications are listed below.

*Two insertions per issue 

PR

Hill and Knowlton are developing new copy to update the website direct.gov.uk/ema

The updated site will go live w/c 8th March to support the above the line activity.

Television Ads

• On air from 24th March 2008 until 16th April 2008
  
• 40-second TV ad ‘Walker, My Way’
  
• 30-second TV ad ‘Walker, Courses’
  
• Appearing on the following stations:

ITV: Carlton, LWT, South East, North, West, Central, ITV2, GMTV, ITV Digital.

Channel 4: E4, More4, Film4

Satellite: Sky, IDS, Viacom

• The ads will target 16 - 34 year olds.

Online

Online activity is being developed, but among the activity planned is:

• Online search which will form a constant underlying foundation for all activity.
• Advertorial style content on youth focused Community websites e.g. Bebo, Habbo Hotel (March 08)
• Display advertising (such as banner ads) running across Sonic, Burst, Advantage, Ad2One, Monetise, MSN, MTV, Bebo, Myspace, GCap, I like music.
• Homepage takeovers/overlays (April 08)
• Dubit street teams – young people talking and placing messages about ema on relevant blogs and sites.
• Myspace page

6 Sheets

• A four week campaign, 6 sheet posters will be placed in 340 secondary schools.
• Appearing from 25th February to 7th March 2008.

Postcards

• A four week campaign, 100,000 postcards will be distributed to 200 secondary schools.
• Appearing from 3rd March to 30th March 2008.

All advertising will be uploaded to the LSC campaign resources website as it is available.

Sales and Product Training

The LSC has commissioned Business to Business and the Wessex Partnership to provide a series of sales and product training sessions for training providers starting in late April 08.

B2B will be offering free sessions in the following topics:

• How to sell to business
• How to reach and identify new customers at the lowest possible cost
• Make that sales appointment! The secrets of successful telemarketing
• Making the sale! How to get what you want from the sales meeting
• Networking to win: How to build relationships and win referrals
  

Further details and booking forms will be circulated to providers mid March.

Connexions PA training

The LSC is funding a series of training workshops for Connexions Personal Advisers across the region. The sessions will cover EMA, E2E, apprenticeships, 14-19 Diplomas, Care to Learn and WorldSkills 2011 and will run from March through to May.

E2E competition

Young people engaged on the Entry to Employment (E2E) programme can now enter a competition to produce a short film clip about E2E. The winning team from each LSC area will each win an iPod Nano, and an overall regional winner will be judged. The regional winning team members will each be presented with £250 worth of learning vouchers at the Learning and Skills Awards in May.

For more information about how to enter a team email mandip.bilkhu@lsc.gov.uk or jodi.fair@lsc.gov.uk

E2E information

New E2E literature is being produced in the form of Z Cards, brochures, fact sheets and a DVD. These should be available early April and will be distributed via Connexions.

National Adult Learning Grant campaign planned for May

We are currently working on the ALG strategy and are planning to start campaign activity around 19th May to coincide with Adult Learners Week. Details to follow.

Apprenticeship Week

We secured two impressive pieces of television coverage championing the work of Apprentices. First, BBC South Today filmed at Marco Pierre White’s restaurant on the Hampshire/Berkshire border profiling the work of Matt Whitfield. This was followed by a feature on ITV Thames Valley Tonight that interviewed Apprentice Shane Lawrence who is based at the Thatcham National Vehicle Repair Centre in Berkshire. Shane ‘challenged’ the television reporter to spray paint a car body which made for some great action footage.

Apprentices from a wide range of industry sectors in the region were also interviewed on BBC Radio Solent, BBC Radio Berkshire and Kick FM and media coverage was secured in Reading, Newbury, Crawley (story involving Central Sussex College and Thales) and Southampton.

Heath Care Sector makes the Skills Pledge

Health Care sector employers in the Surrey, Sussex and Kent regions have shown their commitment to upskilling their employees by making the ‘Skills Pledge’. At the recent Widening participation and Understanding The Joint Investment Framework event in Surrey, Skills Pledges were made by Ashford and St Peters Hospitals NHS Trust, West Kent Primary Care Trust, Royal West Sussex NHS Trust, Royal Surrey NHS Trust, East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, Worthing and Southlands Hospitals NHS Trust and Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust,. For more information on the event click here.

The LSC South East aims to provide its providers and partners with regular bulletins, similar in style to this one, to keep them up to date on marketing and communications activities in relation to the Skills Campaign and other campaigns. If you wish to unsubscribe to this service, Unsubscribe me from this email.

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