Marketing agency secures dual role with regional Institutes of Technology

After a year of helping the Lincolnshire Institute of Technology build its profile, a PR and marketing agency in Lincoln is working to elevate the Yorkshire and Humber Institute of Technology.

Institutes of Technology are leaders in the provision of high-quality, higher-level technical education and training across a range of occupations and industries that rely on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills.

Launched by the Department of Education in 2020, the Institutes of Technology (IoTs) have become important partnerships between education providers and STEM employers across 21 English regions.

The Lincolnshire Institute of Technology hired Carrington in September 2023 to help it make up for lost time following the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, the agency has had a major impact, increasing the IoT’s website traffic by more than 120% and reaching almost 100,000 people through social media and news media to raise awareness of the IoT and its partners.

Combined, IoT partners enrolled 3,000 STEM learners in the last year and this success has helped the Lincolnshire IoT to secure government funding to continue its work for a further 10 years.

Now, Carrington has been hired to repeat its success for the Yorkshire & Humber Institute of Technology, which has also secured government backing for a further 10 years.

Mick Lochran, Director of the Lincolnshire Institute of Technology (LIoT) said: “Carrington has been a responsive, flexible and innovative partner in supporting LIoT to grow its brand online. The team has taken the time to understand the needs of the LIoT partners and has worked well to build on their individual marketing messages, to provide an online footprint that is both coherent and consistent.

“Over the next 10 years, our mission is to create even stronger links with STEM industries to allow us to continue building the workforce of the future - and I’m excited by Carrington’s ideas for helping us achieve that.”

As well as promoting news about LIoT and its successes to local and regional media, Carrington has helped to build the IoT’s social media presence, generating engaging content that’s targeted to both employers and potential students. Alongside its ongoing strategy for the Lincolnshire IoT, Carrington is now working on another bespoke PR and social media strategy for the Yorkshire & Humber IoT.

Mark Gibson, Director of the Yorkshire & Humber Institute of Technology said: “We were really impressed by the impact that Carrington has had on the Lincolnshire IoT and we’re delighted with the work they’ve done for us so far. We were the first IoT in the UK to be relicensed by the government for a further 10 years so we now have a huge opportunity ahead of us to help train the next generation of workers, specialising in STEM skills. I know Carrington will help us to get our voice heard loud and clear as we connect employees of all ages with the education and training opportunities that will help them build amazing careers.”

Head of PR at Carrington, David Sykes said: “When we started working with the Lincolnshire Institute of Technology last year, the organisation was struggling to build recognition and raise awareness and so we quickly got to work building its profile. We’ve overhauled the IoT’s social media presence and created a wide range of content to help boost its audience and engagement.

“We’ve also made good use of the IoT’s partners and the wider media to amplify its voice and broadcast the important message it has to share.

“We’ve had great success from this campaign and so we were thrilled when the Yorkshire & Humber IoT contacted us to ask for our help too. We’ve already begun our campaign for the YHIoT and we have big ideas in the pipeline for both partnerships. Hopefully we can help both IoTs to make people in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and Humberside more employable and provide employers with the workforce that will help them grow and support our region.”