±±¾©Èü³µpk10

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) plans to use Facebook to inspire young people from all economic backgrounds to take up professions in fields such as teaching, law, health and local government.

The DCSF has appointed social media and web design agency Nixon McInnes to
handle its ‘Guiding Lights' programme.

The agency has created a Facebook page, which showcases several 20- to 30-year-old "role models", who will provide case studies of how they entered their profession and provide mentoring to assist young users' career goals.

Activity will also run on blogs, forums and other social networks, where the COI will encourage participation.

The campaign is a response to 'Fair Access to the Professions', a report collated by an independent panel of experts chaired by MP Alan Milburn. The study, published last summer, said that urgent action was required to break the ‘closed-shop mentality' and class divides which exist in some occupations.

COI chief executive Mark Lund has previously laid out plans to use social media as a key constituent of campaigns aimed at engaging consumers in important public issues.

Speaking at the IAB Engage conference last November, Lund said the COI's use of social media would be vital in changing behaviour, especially in relation to issues such as health and climate change.

Lund said: "We are going to try to change consumer habits and the answer lies in conversations, with digital media being crucial to that.

"Interactivity and social media enable positive engagement and can be sustained. However, it's not good enough to do digital by itself, there has to be a link with other channels."

Lund warned that, although social media was important, the COI was not going to boost its investment.

He said: "Digital is of fundamental importance to the COI, but I'd be a fool to say we're going to increase our digital spend in the current economic climate."

The COI has also rolled out the strapline 'It's easier online', to encourage people to carry out administrative tasks such as TV Licence-renewal via government websites, rather than by completing paper forms.