Education body calls pitch for £10m planning job

by Jeremy Lee, Marketing 07-Jun-06

The Learning and Skills Council, the quango funded by the Department for Education and Skills to promote adult education and training in England, is holding a pitch for its £10m communications planning business.

The pitch is being run by the COI, which has begun to approach media
agencies and communications planning specialists to compete for the
business. The winning agency will act as the lead agency on the account,

collaborating with creative shops that will be appointed on an ad hoc

basis.

The Learning and Skills Council was founded in 2001 and had a budget of
£9.2bn in the 2004-2005 financial year. It is responsible for all
non-university further education and training for over-16s in England,
including modern apprenticeships, although nearly 50% of its budget is
spent on keeping young people in education. The organisation allocates
£3bn to adult education.

In 2004, the Learning and Skills Council ran a £12m campaign
through Walsh Trott Chick Smith to reposition apprenticeships for a new
generation of young people and attract more employers to sign up to the
scheme.

Media was handled by Manning Gottlieb OMD.

A COI spokeswoman denied that the communications planning business was
up for review.