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Youth Engagement: A path to reinventing rural education
March 4th, 2010 by Mike Knutson
We talk a lot about the importance of youth engagement in rural communities. It’s a great way to connect with young people, and make sure they realize how valuable they are to the community.
I recently discovered this great example of youth engagement in rural Perth County, Ontario.
Under an initiative developed by the Perth County Econoimc Development Offices, MS2 Productions, a local production company, has been offering Social Media Boot Camp training classes to local businesses. The training involves a 3-hour overview session on social media marketing and hands-on training focused on specific social media tools, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
To promote the training, the company produced a video which I’ve embedded below. (It’s so good, I wish Perth County, Ontario was closer so that I could have attended.)
Perth County Social Media Boot Camp from MS2 Productions - Your Complete on Vimeo.
But it is what’s happening behind the scenes that sets the training apart. In addition to encouraging businesses within each rural community to work together, they are engaging students as social media consultants. As Melissa Schenk, Executive Producer of MS2 Productions explained to me via e-mail:
Local Businesses will hire CO-OP students to be their Social Media Marketers… The Baby Boomers learn from students how to use the Social Media Sites, but the students in turn - learn more about local businesses, how to better put these social media sites to good use, and are providing a valuable resource of information in their communities. Not to mention students are engaging more with businesses, that they might never have had the opportunity or an interest in otherwise.”
In short, young people and business owners are learning from each other. And in the long run, these young people will better appreciate life in their rural communities and be better prepared to recognize business opportunities after completing their education.
Additionally, I think projects like this will lead to the educational reform that Richard Florida has been talking about lately: creativity, technology, and social. All are 21st Century skills that young people need to be successful. Come to think of it, those are the same skills rural communities leaders need as well.
Note: Melissa Schenk sent me a message correcting my initial post, which did not credit the Perth County Economic Development Office for the project. My apologies to Bernia Wheaton, Perth County Economic Development Coordinator. I love this story even more knowing that economic development professionals are leading the charge!
Tags: creative economy, Facebook, marketing, Ontario, Perth County On, social media, Twitter, youth engagement, YouTube
Posted in Community Engagement, Economic Development, Gen Y, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (
3 )
March 9th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Hi MIke-
Thanks for your great post. I agree that both students and business leaders have a lot to learn from one another and one of these tools that can improve business is social media and collaborative technology. Lucky for you you don’t have to go to Ontario to find such a project, we have one right here in South Dakota!
Our business, 9 Clouds, Inc., has been teaching classes to local chambers of commerce, downtown business owners and CEO’s. We are able to train, plan, manage and measure the return of using online tools to make businesses more efficient and more effective and profitable. Similarly to Perth County, we are also engaging and training young students through our online publication: http://thepostsd.com. The Post brings creative minds from Eastern South Dakota together to create an online magazine highlighting the interesting people around South Dakota. These students can then improve their skills and are available for hire on the 9 Clouds projects. It’s a great blend of skill development, job creation, collaboration and rural renewal.
It’s great that you highlight these initiatives and we are excited that we can do our part in developing the future leaders right here in South Dakota.
March 9th, 2010 at 10:39 am
[...] make South Dakota a better place. Today, thanks to a tip, I read the post on Reimagine Rural about Engaging Youth and Rural Education. It struck me reading their review of a program in Ontario that the same work is going on right [...]
March 9th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Scott,
It’s good to hear that our Canadian neighbors have nothing on South Dakotans. You’ll have to invite me to your training sometime. I’ve very interested in seeing young people engaged with rural businesses.