Government calls review of £7m Learndirect brief

The Government is reviewing its &£7m Learndirect advertising account in an attempt to step up its efforts to promote its lifelong learning scheme. Incumbent DFGW is not repitching for the business.

COI Communications has shortlisted Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, Leo Burnett and Publicis for the account. The brief for the agencies will be to target people living in deprived areas who struggle with numeracy and literacy skills.

Insiders suggest that the pitch is being called after research showed that the current advertising has failed to persuade adults to sign up for learning services offered by Learndirect.

But a spokeswoman for the COI says that the response to the ads has been “more than positive.” The Government claims that more than 1 million adults have chosen to study with Learndirect since its launch in October 2000.

The current television campaign, created by DFGW, shows an animated character hopping around the job section of a newspaper. The character then explains how Learndirect can help in finding a job and learning new skills.

Learndirect is run by the University for Industry (Ufi), which works as a public-private partnership to promote workforce development and lifelong learning. It is aimed at anyone over the age of 16 and provides mainly online courses on literacy and numeracy skills and also business and management skills.