Automotive education is at a crossroads.
On the one hand, the industry is changing rapidly as more technologically advanced vehicles hit the roads and California’s emissions reduction deadlines draw closer. At the same time, enrollment in automotive technician programs from communities of color is falling — precisely at the time that employers need them most to help address the changing industry.
The Next Gen Auto: Expanding Enrollment and Equity campaign aims to solve both problems by raising awareness about high tech auto careers and develop leads for the Bay Region’s 14 colleges among women and under-represented groups.
A pilot led by Bay Region ATL Regional Director Pamela Gutman ran from December 2020 through February 2021, was very successful and led to $226,500 in funding to run a more extensive campaign over the next 15 months.
Gutman worked with Full Capacity Marketing, a communications firm that specializes in workforce education, to launch the campaign. Targeted audiences included high school students and their parents, as well as returning and/or displaced workers ages 19-34.
Gutman said the campaign had both internal and external drivers. Externally, technology advancements, changing emissions standards, and employer requests for more advanced skill sets prompted the need for a new approach; internally, colleges faced a need for more enrollments, more awareness of advanced automotive offerings, and increased equity across automotive programs.
The Next Gen Auto: Expanding Enrollment and Equity campaign utilized a website and advertising across digital and social media to reach these audiences and encourage them to contact the schools for more information, which created leads that the colleges could then integrate into other enrollment campaigns.
The initial run reached 90% of the target market, with more than 500,000 people seeing at least one ad on their phone or computer. The engagement rate was four times greater than the higher education industry average, and the campaign had more than 300 leads spread across all 14 colleges.
The next phase of the campaign includes retargeting students who engaged with ads but did not complete a request for information form, as well as further segmentation and customized messaging for specific populations and more students and faculty stories that highlight automotive technology career opportunities.
For more information on Next Gen Auto: Expanding Enrollment and Equity, visit nextgenautobayarea.org/.
