Promoting Your VE Program

Promoting your VE class will help parents and members of your school community better recognize and appreciate the world-class experience you provide students through the VE program. Additionally, promoting your VE experience will help recruit students into the program and open up more opportunities for volunteers and supporters to get involved. Every school and every VE class is unique, so while there is no “one size fits all” approach for promoting your program, you might want to use some of the recommended practices and strategies noted below.

VE and VE-JV Logos

Use the logos linked below for any of your promotional needs such as on your school website, through social media, or on print materials to distribute at your school.

VE Logo
VE Logo with Type
VE-JV Logo (Vertical)
VE-JV Logo (Horizontal)

On Your School Website

Adding Information About VE

For those unfamiliar with VE, it will be helpful for them to get an introduction to this wonderful program. See below for the About VE video, a descriptive paragraph, one pagers, and links to further explore the VE world. 

VE About Video Embed Code

<iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/278562809″ width=”640″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″ allow=”autoplay; fullscreen” allowfullscreen></iframe>

Link to VE About Video – https://vimeo.com/278562809 

About VE Text

VE provides a solution for schools to offer all students meaningful skills-based career experiences. Through our hands-on, task-based curricula, students test drive potential careers and develop in-demand skills and competencies that post-secondary institutions and employers are seeking. By managing the day-to-day operations of a company, students not only develop business skills and an entrepreneurial mindset, they also identify career pathways that align with their interests, talents, and aspirations.

Useful VE One Pagers

Useful VE Links

Adding Information About Your VE Company/Companies

Showing people what is actually happening in the class is one of the best ways to promote the VE program. With so many project deliverables and activities, there’s no shortage of engaging content for you to share about VE classes and companies on your school website.

  • Promote Your Current Company – Feature your company name, mission/company description, and links to marketing resources such as your company website, video commercial, elevator pitches, company social media, and more
  • Recognize the Students in Your Class – Use your school website as another outlet for celebrating the hard work and accomplishments of students
  • Add Information About Previous Businesses – This works to promote your program as well as serve as a record for the milestones achieved and memories created by each year of students

Linking to Posts and News

Many schools share news about the activities and accomplishments of their VE firms—participating in events, besting their peers in real-world competitions, impressing business professionals with their skills and concepts—and having a page promoting your VE class becomes a great place to catalog and share all this news.

Through Social Media

Follow VE’s Official Accounts

“What Should We Post?”

With every post, photos and videos work better for promotional purposes

  • Students engaged during events and activities
  • Interviews
  • Group shots of VE classes
  • Examples of VE company materials such as logo, employee newsletter, website
  • Employee recognition such as Employee of the Month
  • Business milestones such as hitting a sales goal
  • Presentations
  • Student interaction with leaders and professionals

Using Your Social Media Accounts

Facilitators

Administrators

Using Your School Social Media Accounts

Using VE Company Social Media Accounts

Review the following examples of how VE companies promote their programs on social media:

Instagram Accounts

  1. Ancora Safety  
  2. Vivid  
  3. iKomo  
  4. Fly Fashion NY  
  5. FITS 

Twitter Accounts

  1. Current Threads 
  2. Apex
  3. Amplitide
  4. Sunny Snacks
  5. Cowboy Crate
  6. Poppy
  7. Legacy

Throughout Your School

  • Have students spread the word. Encourage students to talk about what they’re doing in VE with their peers and other teachers. This also functions as a helpful exercise in developing networking and communication skills.
  • Utilize school-wide announcements. Think of the ways your school makes announcements and updates to the school population – whether through assemblies, school news broadcasts, morning announcements, school newsletters – and use these opportunities to promote what VE is, key dates, celebrate milestones and successes. Treat VE companies like sports teams.
  • Feature VE on Back-to-School Night. Ensure parents are aware of the world-class experience their children participate in by presenting what the class is working on and sharing any samples of work students have produced in their VE company.
  • Use the power of print materials. Posters, flyers, brochures, banners, pictures. Collaborate with VE students to create materials to hang in hallways, post on bulletin boards, and hand out at offices to promote VE. Use the logos linked at the top of this page and information About VE found in the On Your School Website section of this page. Reach out to your Regional Director for brochures and other promotional items.
  • Plan VE classroom visits for other students. These visits could be tours of the classrooms, showcases of student work, presentations of business plans, or other fun and engaging activities to give students a taste of what the VE experience is like.
  • Volunteer as hosts or student helpers for school events. Your VE company can help “sponsor” an event and lend support to others in the school during one of their events. Remember to promote your company through branding, product displays, giveaways, and creative activities like a photo contest.
  • Host an open house in conjunction with other school-wide events. Your VE class is an important part of your school community and timing an open house with other events happening at the school help’s raise the visibility of the great work your class is doing.

With Your Local Community

  • Send press releases to local media. Take advantage of when there is major news to announce or events happening which would be of interest to the readers of local press and viewers of local media. Reach out to Tyler Fugazzie at tyler@veinternational.org if you need any assistance on this.
  • Host an Open House. Open up your classroom for members of the local community to come visit, tour your VE offices, see the work your students are doing, and learn more about your company and VE. Plus you can make some out-of-network sales as a bonus.
  • Engage with your local Chamber of Commerce. Search the Chamber of Commerce in your area and reach out to source for volunteers and mentors. Place to go for field trips. Connect to local business community. Explore other forms of support and opportunities. (grants, supplies, etc etc)
  • Present to your school board. Invite members of your school board to visit your classrooms. These members can get involved in mock interviews, provide feedback in preparation for competitions, and plug into other relevant in-class activities. The school board members can also help connect your class to the local business community.
  • Engage with local government officials. Look up and reach out to the mayor of your town or city promoting how VE and your school are preparing the future workforce and investing in the local economy by engaging with businesses.

With Volunteers and Business Partners

Use the How to Gain & Retain Mentors document linked below to help grow your class’s business community using best practices including identifying what your needs are, shout-outs, thank you notes, and more.

How to Gain & Retain Mentors

For VE-JV

On Your School Website

About VE-JV Text

The VE-JV Career Academy is a two-course sequence offering real-world experiences and hands-on learning about technology, business, and careers. Students work individually and as a team to develop technology, problem solving, communication, and critical thinking skills, preparing them for success in high school and beyond.

Technology Applications for Business (7th grade) introduces students to technology projects typically used in the business and professional world that require facility with spreadsheets, presentation software, word-processing, graphics, web design, and social media. Lessons and activities are built around an entrepreneurial theme and include projects such as creating a budget, conducting a break-even analysis, making expense reports, developing newsletters, developing and presenting a business plan, and more.

VE-Junior Ventures (8th grade) challenges students to build on skills from Technology Applications by collaborating with their classmates to launch and manage a business that replicates the functions and demands of real business in both structure and practice. Students take on the roles of employees in a company, work in functional departments of the organization (marketing, sales, human resources, accounting, finance, and IT) and complete department-related work and projects that support the goals of the company.

Useful VE-JV Resources

  • Brochure – https://veinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019-VE-JV-Brochure-Web.pdf
  • Annual Activities Map – https://veinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/VE-JV-Activities-Map-7th-and-8th.pdf
  • Video: VE and New York Life Foundation: Transforming Middle School Students Through the VE-JV Career Academy – https://vimeo.com/345693037
  • Video: VE-JV student experience – https://vimeo.com/352752958
  • Video: 8th Grade VE-JV Students in action – https://vimeo.com/204020524

Useful Links

  • Link to VE’s website – https://veinternational.org/
  • Link to VE’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/veinternational
  • Link to VE’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/VEInternational/
  • Link to VE’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/virtual-enterprises-international-inc-/?trk=biz-companies-cym
  • Link to VE’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/veinternational/

Adding Information About Your VE-JV Company/Companies
Showing people what is actually happening in the class is one of the best ways to promote the VE-JV program. With so many project deliverables and activities, there’s no shortage of engaging content for you to share about VE-JV classes and companies on your school website.

  • Promote Your Current Company/Students – Feature your company name, mission/company description, and links to marketing resources such as your company website, video commercial, elevator pitches, company social media, and more
  • Recognize the Students in Your Class – Use your school website as another outlet for celebrating the hard work and accomplishments of students
  • Add Information About Previous Businesses – This works to promote your program as well as serve as a record for the milestones achieved and memories created by each year of students

Linking to Posts and News
Many schools share news about the activities and accomplishments of their VE firms—participating in events, besting their peers in real-world competitions, impressing business professionals with their skills and concepts—and having a page promoting your VE-JV class becomes a great place to catalog and share all this news.

Branding

Visit the branding page for branding elements and guidelines

Please direct any questions you have about promoting your VE class to your regional director.