Employment and Skills Week September. Evaluation

Transcription

1 Employment and Skills Week September Evaluation Led by Community Housing Cymru, working in partnership with CIH Cymru and NIACE Cymru, Employment and Skills Week was a great opportunity to show how the sector is leading the learning in Wales. It was also an opportunity to shout about the sector as a great place to work. Think career think housing! CHC has produced an evaluation of Employment and Skills Week in order to capture media coverage, member activity, social media activity and the general buzz surrounding the week. This evaluation will enable us to establish which channels were most successful, which messages were communicated and also to assess overall reach and engagement on social media. CHC s involvement We produced an electronic pack for the week containing our key messages and suggestions on how members could get involved with the week. We also produced postcards to be shared on social media with various relevant statistics, and a good practice guide containing great examples from around Wales on how our members are engaging with the employment and skills agenda.

2 These were our 5 key messages for the week: The housing sector is a partner of choice We are a sector that can deliver We provide more than bricks and mortar Our sector is a key lever for employment and regeneration/enterprise Our people are innovative and have a can do attitude CHC s website CHC s website was used as the main information hub for Employment and Skills Week, with all the relevant information held on the following page: Some notable website statistics: - 1,876 visits to CHC s website during Employment and Skills Week (500 more than our Rural Week held earlier this year) people viewed the Employment and Skills Week page during the week (over double the figures for Rural Week) which can largely be attributed to our activity on Twitter. - The Employment and Skills Week page was one of the most popular in September s edition of Snapshot.

3 Social media Our Employment and Skills Week campaign was hugely reliant on gathering support on social media and sharing relevant images and statistics, as well as sharing the good practice guide extensively with relevant partners. We tailored the content for each channel, and this strategy is explained in further detail in the next section. Twitter We used the #ESWeek14 hashtag during Employment and Skills Week, as did all our partners. This meant that our tweets and members tweets were seen by a number of different organisations and sectors which hugely increased our reach and exposure. Our campaign for the week largely revolved around social media, Twitter in particular. We tweeted extensively before the week to encourage people to get involved and to download our information pack. This also gave people the chance to get involved in conversations and to spread positive messages before the week had even started. During the week we tweeted members, other housing organisations, politicians, universities, colleges and all relevant individuals/organisations we could think of.

4 We gained 45 followers during the week and had retweets from Lesley Davies AM, Sandy Mewies AM, Julie James AM, CIH Cymru, NIACE Cymru, Keith Edwards, i2i and Colleges Wales. Members tweeted extensively during the week and retweeted our tweets about the good practice guide, and the hashtag was regularly hitting over 100,000 timelines per hour. Facebook We shared the campaign images on Facebook and also promoted the good practice guide and blog posts on Facebook. Members also promoted the week and their inclusion in the good practice guide on their own Facebook pages. Blog We published three blog posts about Employment and Skills Week. These were written by Clare James (CHC), Keith Edwards (CIH Cymru) and Farida Aslam (Monmouthshire Housing). Sioned Hughes also wrote a post for CIH Cymru s blog so that we could cross-promote. As you can see, Keith Edwards post had the highest number of views during the week. The blog posts were promoted on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

5 LinkedIn We promoted the week on LinkedIn in the lead-up and during the week itself. We regularly promoted the information pack and the good practice guide and made sure our LinkedIn followers were kept well informed about the week. We had a higher than average engagement percentage on our post about the press release for Employment and Skills Week: Member activity We had a phenomenal response from members to Employment and Skills Week. As this is just one of the areas where members excel on a daily basis, they were able to send plenty of excellent case studies and put on numerous relevant events throughout the week. We put together a good practice guide based on the fantastic case studies we received which can be viewed on our website:

6 Here s a snapshot of what members organised during the week: - Melin Homes ran a Residents Digital Club in Ebbw Vale which allowed local people to find out about all things digital. They also took part in Monmouthshire Digital Fridays at Caldicot Library. - Melin Works were at Melin s AGM during the week. Melin Works offers a variety of projects which aim to help residents improve their skills and find employment. It includes a range of opportunities to enhance your employability, including accredited training, volunteering, work tasters, apprenticeships and Graduate Interns. - Monmouthshire Housing held an Employment and Skills Fair in Abergavenny. The day follows the success of a previous event which was attended by 430 people. The fair aims to link up employees and skills providers and give advice and opportunities to people looking for work. The event also included a CV clinic. - NPT Homes held its second Act Inspire/Enhance Training Programme at its head office in Baglan Energy Park for residents of Sandfields, Port Talbot. The programme aims to provide tenants with necessary skills to overcome barriers and ultimately find employment. - Pennaf Housing Group/Clwyd Alyn hosted their Celebrating Achievement Event where they presented all ODEL Achievers with their certificates. ODEL Learning and Training was launched by Pennaf Housing Group to enable residents in Supported Living Scheme to engage in learning and to complement the support they receive whilst living on the schemes. - Blaenau Gwent Council organised an event at Blaenau Gwent Training Centre in partnership with Melin, Tai Calon and United Welsh to engage with local tenants. As part of the open day, local tenants had the opportunity to tour the centre and find out more about the different training courses available as well as meeting with representatives from local HAs and local businesses. - Blaenau Gwent Council also organised an Employment Pathway Summit where strategic leads form the council and local HA met to discuss existing services available to help people into work, areas of duplication, gaps in provision and effective joint working going forward. - Valleys to Coast partnered with Bridgend Council and others on an employability programme, and are making a social media film about V2C TR&T plastering apprentice Corey Barnes success story. - Newport City Homes ran the Working Week during Employment and Skills Week, working in partnership with Charter and Bron Afon to provide training and work experience to residents who are currently unemployed.

7 Media Coverage Although we didn t secure any national media coverage for Employment and Skills Week, BBC and ITV were extremely interested in several of our case studies and unfortunately had to pull their coverage at the last minute due to time restraints. Members consistently get local media coverage for their work in this area but here s what was achieved during the week itself: 24 September - South Wales Argus, Charter Housing s Bunker project: 39_turn_life_around 39 with_new_skills/?ref=mr 24 September NIACE Cymru s website: Summary Our vision for Employment and Skills Week was to demonstrate that Welsh housing associations are leading the learning in Wales and that housing associations are about so much more than bricks and mortar. We also wanted to shout about the sector as a great place to work. We asked the sector for examples of how they re contributing to the employment and skills agenda in Wales and had a phenomenal response. From apprenticeships to job swaps to digital inclusion initiatives to employment fayres, the sector is proving that its remit extends way beyond housing. All the activities and promotional channels described above were carried out in order to achieve our vision for Employment and Skills Week. The high level of activity on social media, high volume of website hits and the substantial activity from members prove that employment and skills are already high on the agenda and also confirm that awareness was significantly raised during the week. The statistics are impressive and demonstrate once again that social media is an effective vehicle for spreading campaign messages. The sector clearly provides a key lever for employment and is a partner of choice. Most importantly, we re making a real difference to the tenants and communities we serve. If you would like any further information about Employment and Skills Week, please don t hesitate to contact us at CHC. Bethan Davies Communications Officer