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A new advertising campaign from the Ad Council, dubbed Find Something New, encourages Americans to pursue skills-based postsecondary education and training. The campaign features online, certification, apprenticeship, early college and technical programs, as well as associate degrees. It does not include traditional four-year degrees.
Inside Higher Ed reported on the development of the campaign in February. The project has been led by IBM, Apple and the White House, in partnership with the Trump administration-convened American Workforce Policy Advisory Board. That 27-member task force, which was created in 2018, features leaders from higher education, large corporations, industry associations and policy makers. It advised the administration on its recently released plan to encourage the federal government to prioritize skills over college degrees in hiring for federal jobs.
Supporting partners of the new Ad Council campaign include the American Association of Community Colleges, the Kentucky Community & Technical College System, WSU Tech, and Western Governors University.
In a news release, Western Governors cited the 18 million Americans who are recently unemployed. The large, online and nonprofit university said the campaign is designed to help Americans of all ages develop their skills for the rapidly changing job market.
“At WGU, we believe in the transformative power of education,” said Scott Pulsipher, WGU's president. “We also believe that all learning is valuable, be it a four-year degree, a certificate, an apprenticeship or other work-based programs. This new campaign is critical to helping connect Americans with high-quality education and training pathways they may not otherwise know are available; pathways that can help change the trajectory of their lives.”
