Sarah Williams, Area Manager for Furness, talks about how the media partnership has raised awareness about the full extent of services Inspira offers in the area.
February 2014 saw the start of our media partnership with North West Evening Mail in Furness, part of Cumbria’s CN Group. The initiative stemmed from the fact we were all keen to see a dedicated ‘Skills’ page in the local paper which would help and inspire both young people and adults to raise their aspirations in the Furness area, and thus meet the employment opportunities head on as the likes of BAE systems, GSK and others dramatically expand their workforce.
On the 4th of February we wrote the first of our fortnightly columns introducing Barrow Advice Services to the newspaper and digital media readers.
Each column provides us with a unique opportunity to reinforce the messages to clients and stakeholders that we offer career management and personal development programmes, to young people as well as adults. We showcase the team’s skills, expertise and the individual services we offer. We use the column as a timely vehicle to promote particular events and activities associated with the contracts such as recruitment in January for NCS, SkillsFest in Barrow, and the availability of Wheels 2 Work mopeds and to push National Careers Service to our non priority groups. We have developed great relationships with the main education and business journalists who now liaise with us to write related articles with accompanying photos. Many of these have included young people and adults whom have benefited directly from our services, resulting in a positive impact on their lives.
Each month we also contribute a Career Ladder article. So far we have highlighted six of our team members as well as a number of local stakeholders.
The highlight for 2014 was certainly the coverage of National Citizen Service and readers being able to follow the journey of our NCSers with Wave and Group Leaders supplying interesting and humorous pieces.
The media campaign has been a whole team effort and has significantly raised the profile of Inspira and the team here in Barrow, as the CN Group’s social and online media provides national and international reach to readers of all ages and backgrounds.
