An industry-sponsored initiative designed to change negative perceptions about a technical education career path will get some high-powered marketing assistance from Viacom’s Country Music Channel, CMT.
The Nashville-based cable channel will announce at an event tonight in New Orleans that it is partnering with the Louisiana Community and Technical College System and the nonprofit Louisiana Calling initiative on a statewide campaign that will include an eight-stop community tour with rising country music star Courtney Cole, a native of Mandeville.
Since 2012, CMT has promoted post-secondary education in various cities around the country through its Empowering Education campaign. Cole has served as its ambassador since 2016.
Details of how Cole will help promote the Louisiana Calling initiative won’t be announced until tonight. But in other places where CMT has partnered, the cable channel produces videos highlighting the success stories of locals who pursued a postsecondary degree or certification. Those videos are then shown during and around Cole’s concerts.
The announcement is a big win for Louisiana Calling, which was conceived in 2013 by a group of local industry leaders concerned about the lack of skilled workers in the state at a time when Louisiana was in the early stages of an industrial construction boom.
The effort was originally called the Louisiana Workforce Education Initiative, and its purpose was to encourage more people to consider careers in the technical and skilled trades by removing the stigma associated with not getting a four-year college degree.
After more than three years of fundraising, research and planning, the initiative launched with a commercial and video series late last year. More recently, it began partnering with the school systems in St. John, St. James and St. Charles parishes to encourage more high school students to pursue technical education after they graduate.
While the initiative is going well, the CMT partnership is expected to significantly raise awareness about Louisiana Calling and increase its visibility, something that is badly needed.
“This is really exciting will help create that interest and awareness and connect us with the people,” says Christel Slaughter of SSA Consultants, who oversees the Louisiana Calling initiative. “The message is still not getting out there and people just don’t know about us.”
—Stephanie Riegel
