The NASDCTEc office has recently been inundated with requests for use of the CTE: Learning that works for North Carolina logo, so I called Rhonda Welfare, third party approver and asked “What’s going on?†Her explanation follows. Rhonda, Senior Analyst, CTE State and Federal Accountability, NC Department of Public Instruction, is a guest blogger will tell us what North Carolina is doing with the campaign.
North Carolina Career and Technical Education (CTE) has long understood the importance of marketing CTE. We have been involved in marketing activities and have assisted local districts in their marketing efforts for many years. Most recently, a strategic plan developed for North Carolina CTE by business, community, and education stakeholders focused on how marketing the CTE message can make a difference. We didn’t need to convince our locals that marketing is critical. In fact, they push us to do more!
At the state level we began using the new logo shortly after its release in 2011. We used it on everything we released – brochures, meeting handouts, agendas, PowerPoint presentations – and talked it up at every opportunity. As local users expressed interest, we told them to have their CTE Administrator request the logo directly from NASDCTEc to ensure that it was used in ways that reflected the CTE brand message. This summer we sent an e-mail to the administrators at all 115 of our local districts reminding them about the logo and the procedure for obtaining it. The message was timed just as they were developing materials for the fall and it opened the floodgates. About half of our local districts have committed to using the logo, and we anticipate that number will increase as others see it used more widely around the state.
We are happy to have access to an attractive, professional quality CTE logo that conveys a message that is important to us in North Carolina and around the country. Having it available in different formats has been particularly useful. The response from our users and from those who see the logo on our materials has been overwhelmingly positive.
For more information about how you too can grow state usage of the CTE: Learning that works for America state logos like North Carolina is doing, please contact Rhonda Welfare, Senior Analyst, CTE State and Federal Accountability, NC Department of Public Instruction at Rhonda.Welfare@dpi.nc.gov. Many states have signed on to use their state logos; in this case State Director Jo Anne Honeycutt opted for North Carolina to review all eligible third party user agreements prior to being given access to their state logos. Rhonda Welfare is the designated person who makes decisions regarding granting access to the state logo.
Does your state have access to the CTE: Learning that works for America state logos?Learn more
Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager