The Challenge
For more than 125 years, GE has invented the future of industry, and today the company’s dedicated team, leading technology, global reach and capabilities help the world work more efficiently, reliably, and safely. GE’s people are diverse and dedicated, operating with the highest level of integrity and focus to fulfill GE’s mission and deliver for its customers.
Energy PR was brought on board to work with GE to promote, spread awareness and drive participation for its Next Engineers programme, aimed at increasing the diversity of young people entering the engineering profession.
The GE Foundation is investing £2.5 million into Next Engineers across Staffordshire. Within Staffordshire, GE operates three sites that design, develop and service products used globally in the power and renewable energy industries.
Next Engineers is designed to inspire 3,500 local students aged 13-18 into choosing engineering for their studies and career paths. The programme gives students first-hand experiences of engineering and ultimately awards financial support.
How We Helped
We embarked on a comprehensive media relations programme targeting the national and regional media, plus the relevant industry press.
We brought Next Engineers to the attention of the nation through securing coverage with Radio Four’s Today Programme and securing an interview opportunity with Sky News. Today is the most influential news programme in Britain in setting the political agenda and it has an average weekly listening audience of seven million.
We also shared the news with local media in order to boost the programme’s visibility amongst its key demographic – the people of Staffordshire, driving applications while boosting GE’s brand perception in the region. This was achieved through interviews with BBC Radio Stoke and press coverage in all of Staffordshire’s key news outlets, such as Express & Star, The Sentinel and Midlands Business Insider.
Finally, the news was covered extensively within the business and industry media, such as Business Leader, Business Live and The Engineer. This served to engage the wider engineering industry and position the business as a force for good in its mission to boost diversity in engineering.
