|
|
Recommendations for Strategic Enrollment Management & MarketingMarketing adult education services
All of the adult education programs located in our research sites
advertise their services. Like
programs across the state, they make use of flyers and public access signage and
media. These techniques, however, rely on luck and the interest of
the potential student to be successful. They
assume that the individual will know what adult education programs offer and
require and that individuals will want the programs offered.
Traditional promotion does nothing to dispel myths that might discourage
attendance.
For example, education does not always “pay” as promised by Governor
Patton’s “Education Pays” initiative. The “Education Pays” campaign is
a public relations strategy to sell education to individuals who the governor
says, “…do not fully realize the impact on their lives of not educating
themselves to their individual maximum capacity.”
This campaign may not be effective for adult education enrollments as it
underestimates the values undereducated adults hold for learning and ignores
negative impressions individuals may have about “school-like” settings and
negative experiences individuals may have had or heard about credentials that do
not increase employment or wages. Our
research indicates that undereducated adults do realize the value of further
education, but may not feel that the programs available are useful to them
personally.
We understand that the current emphasis on workforce investment requires
that state agencies consider social good as well as individual development.
Marketing a service that benefits both the individual and society is
referred to as societal marketing. Kotler
defines the goal of societal marketing as …to determine the needs, wants, and interests of target
markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and
efficiently than competitors in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer’s
and the society’s well being (1986, 17). A societal marketing approach prioritizes the assessment of
consumers’ goals as well as workforce development initiatives.
Importantly, we cannot assume that these are the same goals.
Adult educators and policy makers should not assume to know what
undereducated adults “need” nor should they assume that economic factors are
always the most important variables in educational decision-making.
|
|
|
