Give Your Skills New Life
Client
Capabilities
Date
28/01/2026
The campaign ‘Give your Skills New Life’ created for Department for Education (DfE), acts as a national recruitment drive - designed to encourage people seeking a career change to consider training others by clearly articulating the rewards of training college students.
Whilst many possess the necessary skills, few realise that transitioning into further education is an option, let alone a viable career choice.
The campaign was built from the insight that many people have a desire for change, but aren’t sure whether to take a leap into something entirely new. In order to encourage the change, DfE is positioning a career in further education as the perfect blend of new and familiar, which allows professionals to give their existing skills new life, and in so doing re-energise their careers.
The campaign portrays the journeys of several professionals in England reaching a crossroads in their career, then being ‘re-energised’ by pivoting and moving into further education, passing on their knowledge to the next generation of workers in their field. The campaign features real trainers and real students in real colleges such as West Herts Barnfield College (Luton Campus), South Thames College (Wandsworth Campus), and Westminster College (Paddington Campus). In doing so, this campaign champions authenticity to explore such a significant career change in a way that feels achievable and compelling.
A series of four 30 second films use a ‘before and after’ structure to spotlight professionals at a career crossroads, captured through the eyes of those who noticed their fading enthusiasm first - their friends and family. Whilst these stories explore the various catalysts for a career change, they aim to emphasise how making that step into further education can reinvigorate a love of one’s craft, reinforcing how a career change doesn't have to be a daunting leap into the unknown but, rather, a natural evolution in one’s professional journey.
In addition to the films, the campaign will also run across digital, social, Out of Home, radio and print - with the aim of weaving the campaign into the daily lives of professionals, reinforcing that a transition into further education is an achievable next step.
Directed by George Daniell through VCCP's global content creation studio Girl&Bear, the films establish becoming a further education trainer as an accessible, exciting career change from a personal and emotive level. The Digital Out of Home, social and display production created by Bernadette continued the story in digital channels, employing targeted messaging to encourage professionals to explore whether a transition could be for them.
