The achievements of higher education institutions were recognised and celebrated once again at this years’ MACE Higher and Further Education Excellence Awards. Varsity College was the proud recipient of five awards during the MACE Excellence Gala dinner on the 8th October 2015.
Varsity College was awarded in the following categories: overall winner in the Advertising Broadcast for ‘The Future Will Be’ cinema commercial, a merit award in the Social Media Social Networks category for, ‘Student Dash’, a merit award in the Printed Publications: Special Publications category for the 2015 Student Diary (Your Unconventional Guide to 2015), a merit award in the Stakeholder Relations category for ‘Project Life’ and an excellence award for the Printed Publications External: Special Publications for the ‘2015 Full-Time Brochure’.
Says Simon Nicolson, Marketing Manager at Varsity College about the cinema commercial: “Identifying key platforms to promote our brand is vital. Many school learners go to the cinema during their school holidays. We found this to be a perfect place to communicate directly with our target market”.
The cinema commercial takes a storytelling approach to highlight what might be seen as the ‘cookie-cutter’ effect of education during one’s school years. Having each been moulded by the same system, it implores the question, “What will you do to make your future your own?” The commercial can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/user/varsitycollege/featured
“Student Dash is a social media game and competition that we ran via Facebook earlier this year. The purpose of the game was to create fun for students while also driving home the message that our campuses offer comprehensive student support services and that students should never need to resort to social media or online discussion forums to address their concerns and issues”, adds Nicolson.
Project Life is aimed at Grade 10 Learners, Counsellors and Life Orientation teachers. The vision is to supplement, support and ignite teaching and learning, for learners and Life Orientation teachers as part of the school curriculum. This ignition is created by having material researched and developed in line with the CAPS document, issued by the Department of Education that is both engaging to learn and visually appealing. Grade 10 is a pivotal time in the learners’ life where a number of decisions are being made and the journey of self-discovery takes a leap forward. Thus, over and above providing support to teaching and learning, it is Varsity College’s way of making a contribution to a young person’s self-development.
MACE fulfils a leadership role in Higher Education and Further Education sectors within Southern Africa by adding value to practitioners in Marketing and Communications through high quality development programmes, facilitating networking partnerships and transformation, as well as promoting best practices amongst member institutions.