Recruitment coup of the week award goes to La Trobe University VC Professor Theo Farrell and his ever-diligent media team, for recruiting Jason Clare for a temporary secondment to their PR initiatives.
The Melbourne-headquartered university realised it needed a Sydney announcement to snag the services of the Education Minister, and Mr Clare obliged, even taking to Linked In to spruik the expansion of La Trobe’s Nexus program, which seeks to lure mature age students into teaching.
After the promise of more funding for regional campuses in the Accord’s implementation paper and then the rockstar treatment for the program expansion into La Trobe’s Sydney campus, Professor Farrell may well have unlocked the secret to securing the support of the Education Minister.
Minister Clare not only shared a story and pic highlighting his La Trobe launch on LinkedIn (below), but also posted a positive headline from The Australian, Mr Murdoch’s paywalled and famously conservative broadsheet.
Professor Farrell and the La Trobe team don’t have to worry about buying ads for Nexus – with editorial-based strategies getting PR results and government kudos for the cost of a couple of plane fares, the ad budget can be squared away elsewhere.
