Recruitment Strategies
Successful Learner Recruitment Strategies
Community Literacy of Ontario has collected information on effective
learner recruitment strategies from a wide variety of sources, including
from participants in CLO’s two online workshops on learner recruitment
held in 2006 and ideas shared by CLO’s board of directors. As
well, strategies were taken from research from Kingston Literacy’s “Reaching
Across the Barriers”, the Ontario Literacy Coalition’s “Seeing
the Need; Meeting the Need” and CLO’s own “Learner
Recruitment and Retention Toolkit.”
Effective learner recruitment strategies from Ontario’s community
literacy agencies include the following:
- We set up a year-round recruitment committee made up of
one or two board members, staff and community members.
The only job and
focus of this committee is student recruitment.
- As part of staff and tutor training we make sure everyone
is aware of how important a friendly, helpful, warm attitude and atmosphere
is to current and potential adult students.
- Our literacy agency uses radio advertising targeted at youth.
We use youth voices and encourage them to use their
own words and lingo for the script.
- We create student business cards. These cards both empower
the current students and also serve as a tool for
recruiting new students, since the cards are given out to their friends
and family.
- We offer casual help to our community. For example, we hold
a drop in night at our literacy agency and we offer
to help people complete forms free of charge. This puts us in contact
with people who might
well like to improve their literacy skills.
- Our literacy agency holds a pizza lunch open house where
potential learners can come in and speak with current learners.
- We offer short-term courses. The mini courses are based on
ideas and needs that come from current students. Courses have included:
budgeting, genealogy, living wills, “writing your memoirs”,
etc. These courses result in greater visibility in
the community and some participants are inclined to stay and work
on their literacy skills!
- Our literacy agency offers a “bring a friend day” for
all current students. We advertise this event and offer
special promotions to the guests and to students who bring in friends.
- We encourage learners and volunteers to visit the specific
communities they are affiliated with and bring program
material in order to raise awareness of literacy issues and the services
offered by our
agency.
- We put a flyer or bookmark about our literacy program in
grocery bags.
- The student group in our literacy agency researches, writes
and publishes their own student newsletter to share
with current and potential students.
- Our literacy agency conducts a sidewalk survey on International
Literacy Day. We asked the public if they are familiar
with our agency, its location, and whether they would refer someone
to us. We also hand
out basic information about our program.
- We officially recognize learners who have referred other
learners to our program.
- Our agency holds a coffee house once per year. We invite
adults from the community to read their own poetry or prose. We invite
local
musicians, singers and artists to showcase their
talents. Students help with the planning and implementation. This
event greatly increases community
awareness of our agency and also helps our students
gain some good solid skills!
- Because of the stigma in some people’s minds, we do not
use the word “literacy” in our promotional material. Instead,
we talk about “essential skills”, “upgrading”,
or the “skills needed to get a job or keep a job”.
- Our agency wants to attract more single mothers. We created
recruitment messages for this group and then tested
them with a group of single moms. We then hired a single mother to
conduct several community
presentations to increase awareness of our services
and inform other single mothers of their value.
- We put bookmarks, brochures, business cards, magnets, etc.
into as many locations in our community as possible: doctor’s
offices, schools, libraries, community centers, playgroups,
health units, legal aid offices, bus shelters, and malls.
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