High School Recruitment Step 5: Sponsor Events
High School Recruitment Step 5: Sponsor Events
Follow Our 5-Step High School Recruitment Strategy
While this is our last step in this series, it is by no means the least important step of our 5-step high school recruitment strategy. Our fifth step, sponsoring events, is a great way to make connections and reach out to prospective students, teachers, and counselors. These events will allow you to establish partnerships, help you maintain relationships, and offer you the chance to differentiate your school. Plus, it’s the chance to create memorable events for students seeking information about their bright futures.
There are many different types of events that you can sponsor that can help you reach out and make these connections.
Sponsor Competitions on Campus
One of the ways to create connections with the high schools, educators, and counselors in your area is to sponsor competitions on campuses. SkillsUSA is always looking for hosts for their state, regional, and national contests and has a page dedicated just to partnering with them to make it easy. These competitions are often attended by students already interested in careers and technical education, and they may be looking to enroll in a school like yours.
Since these events bring so many people together—and so many people with a specific interest in common—it’s a terrific opportunity to reach a large and diverse group of potential students. It’s also a great way to make connections with the high schools that participate. (Think back to Step 2 and the importance of creating a database of high school counselors and educators!) Getting to know high schools at this type of event can make it easier to set up recruiting events, expand your school’s reach, and make sure teachers and counselors are familiar with your programs when they have students seeking career and technical education.
Sponsor Virtual Events
These days, of course, you don’t even have to leave your office in order to network successfully. Virtual events offer flexible times and locations to people that might not be able to attend in-person competitions or events, allowing you to reach a broader community. With your database of counselors and educators you can even ask them to suggest virtual events that the students might be looking for to increase turnout as well.
Sponsoring events with groups like the State Counselor Association or with third-party partners—such as webinars on specific career paths or virtual FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) workshops—helps you expand your audience. You’re likely to get a much more diverse audience depending on the content being shared and the platform you use to host it. Hosting a webinar with the Imagine America Foundation, for instance, automatically offers you access to our own robust network of counselors, workforce boards, and VA offices nationwide.
Sponsor State Home School Association Meetings
An often-overlooked group of prospective enrollees for your school are homeschooled students, who may also be more likely to consider a nontraditional postsecondary path like a hands-on training program. Reach out to your state’s home school association and inquire whether they have any meetings or local events that need sponsorship. Ask about conferences, conventions, and collaborations for homeschooling families and find out how your school might support their own outreach efforts.
The connections you will make here will probably be a little different since there isn’t a single or consistent school counselor or admin to go to. But just as with more traditional events, making connections and sharing the value of your school’s programs is what it’s all about. Homeschool meetings and events give you a chance to do just that, allowing you to reach a number of homeschooled students and their educator parents and tell them about your school.
About the 5-Step Recruitment Strategy
For more than twenty years, the Imagine America Foundation has been helping students get the hands-on training they need to start a new career. Now, that includes sharing valuable advice for schools who want to improve their high school recruitment strategy—and to reach the prospective students in their area who will most benefit from their programs.
Step 2: Establish Partnerships
Step 3: Maintain Relationships
Step 4: Differentiate Your School
Step 5: Sponsor Events
Ready to learn more about how the Imagine America Foundation can help your school start or enhance its high school recruitment efforts? Get in touch with me today!
Lee Doubleday
Phone: 571.267.3015
Email: leed@imagine-america.org