2.2 Strategic Communications

Clarifying who you are, why you exist and why it matters to employers.

This module helps your WIL department articulate and define your unique value proposition, create a positioning statement, specify targeting, and create program-specific personas.

Situation Analysis answers ‘where are you now?’ Objectives clarify ‘where do you want to go?’ and the strategy summarizes ‘how do you get there?’ Strategy requires the ability to see the big picture. Yet, strategy is arguably the most difficult part of an engagement plan.

Articulate your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

The UVP is closely tied to your positioning statement which answers questions such as: Who are we? What do we offer? Which markets do we serve? What makes us different? And the employer’s crunch question: “What’s in it for me?” which needs to be answered within seconds of landing on a website.

UVP describes the unique benefit of your offer, how you solve your employer’s needs and what distinguishes you. It clearly articulates why an organization would want to participate in a partnership with your PSI.

Clarify your Positioning Statement

Positioning refers to how you want to be perceived or positioned in the minds of your industry partners.

A positioning statement is a brief description of your services and how the service fills a particular need of the target market. 

Because Co-op, WIL and Experiential Learning departments of PSI’s are not brands in and of themselves, they require integration with the larger strategic direction of the institution. Leveraging the PSI’s brand value as the scaffolding for which to position your department is extremely important.

Communication Worksheet

Specify Targeting

Targeting means breaking markets into segments and carefully selecting the right segments to target. This is a strategic way to decide which employers to reach out to and who could really benefit from WIL involvement. It also includes differentiating current employers from prospective employers.

The #1 reason employers participate in WIL is to develop specific skills their organization needs, reflecting the new skills economy. As job developers and industry partnership builders, we need to match the “skills” required to do the work and dismantle the idea that segmentation is soley based on academic program, industry, sector, or credential. Organizations across all industries typically hire for various skill clusters without considering what sector their business is in. For example, there are more workers with high technology occupations outside of the high technology sector in BC (WorkBC, 2019). In other words, targeting prospective organizations only in the high tech sector as a technologies facilitator means a large segment of companies that require tech skills but are in non-high tech sectors are overlooked. Internal assessments demonstrate that ideal partners many times post roles relevant across several programs. This is especially true for 1st year or 2nd year college student postings.

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2.1 Goals, Objectives & Plan

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Section 3: Engagement Playbook