Communication technology and digital tools are ubiquitous in everyday life and become more and more important in education and in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). For colleges’ enrollment, using digital marketing tool can help reach an enormous audience in a way that is both cost-effective and measurable. 

This has been especially relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2020, especially during the peak recruitment in May-August, many conventional face-to-face career orientation activities, including Open Day, Girl’s Day or campus tour that help students decide which occupations fit their interest and aptitudes best are delayed. This new situation requires TVET colleges to switch to virtual connections to help maintain their career orientation activities. Live and digital career orientation activities are not only possible during the pandemic situation but also widen access to students and families with financial or transportation problems, who might not have been able to visit campuses.

The 10-days-training aims at improving digital marketing skills for PR focal points of the TVET Programme’s partner colleges, based on an initial current situation analysis among the colleges. Results of the research as well as inputs during the trainings will be collected to develop a toolkit digital marketing for TVET to provide recommendations to improve the colleges’ existing digital channel and give guidance on how to develop, design and implement digital marketing campaign effectively and efficiently.

The course has 10 online sessions and covers the five contents:

• Improve the cooperate branding and identity of the college: The importance of brand identity for a TVET college; factors to make a good brand identity online 
• Design a digital marketing plan: suitable online media channels, advantages and disadvantage of each; how to design, plan and implement a digital marketing activities/ campaign 
• Design, plan and implement a virtual career orientation campaign/activity: discuss useful activities/events online that colleges can use during the recruitment seasons; how to design, plan and implement a virtual event; how to promote the event on social media 
• Content marketing: Understand and practice content marketing tools: image, videos, text 
• How to run a (paid) advertisement campaign: how to plan, run, monitor and evaluate a (paid) ads campaign on Facebook and Google Ads