Department of Education and Training

Challenge

In 2016, Truth Agency was engaged by DET at short notice to assist with the development of a narrative and corresponding content for the Government’s response to the Bracks Review of education funding in Victoria.

With extremely tight timelines, and limited subject matter knowledge, Truth developed a narrative and content, and revised a draft media release.

Truth has since been engaged for a range of communications and engagement projects for DET, including assisting with the launch of Skills First – the Victorian Government’s new vision for a stable, trusted training and TAFE system.

After developing a narrative, the Skills First brochure was a clear, concise and engaging document used at the Ministerial launch event.

Truth has been involved in the development of collateral and content providing on update on the implementation of Skills First.

As part of this work, Truth was engaged by HESG in 2017 to develop and implement a communications strategy to generate awareness and increase participation in the state’s annual student satisfaction survey of registered training organisations and; assist the successful launch of a new SMS students poll to capture regular student insights throughout the training year.

Truth identified stakeholder channels with a shared interest in employers and students having their say about the quality and performance of training and TAFE in Victoria.  Given the time constraints and low profile for state-wide engagement of employers and students, established stakeholder communications channels presented a viable, trusted and timely pathway to target audiences.

Key challenges influencing the approach included:

• Low awareness: To date, the annual surveys had not been proactively communicated. Distributed to recipients only achieving a reasonable 11% response rate.
• Tight communications window: Timing of surveys and new SMS poll limited scope for communications.

Solution

Stakeholder PR advocacy. Truth identified stakeholder channels with shared interest in employers and students having their say about the quality and performance of training and TAFE in Victoria.

Given the time constraints and low profile for state-wide engagement of employers and students, established stakeholder communications channels presented a viable, trusted and timely pathway to target audiences.

Key activities included:

• Outreach and engagement to public and private entities with established online communications channels to students and employers.
• Creation of PR advocates kit including e-news and social media content for promotion of the surveys and SMS poll.
• Follow-up engagement with stakeholder channels seeking feedback on content and perceived value for their participation in the communications.
• Engagement of the Victorian Skills Commissioner to utilise established industry channels and networks for reaching employers across the state and sectors.