Formative Evaluation of Heritage Interpretation Career Recruitment Media Targeting Teenagers

Abstract

Many fields, including heritage interpretation, are faced with a changing labor force, a lack of public awareness, and reduced university enrollment. Combined, these problems result in a smaller pool of qualified applicants to fill vacant positions. Presenting media with a unified message to a targeted audience is one possible solution to this problem. This research used formative evaluation to develop a recruitment media toolkit that increases teenagers’ awareness of heritage interpretation as they explore vocational possibilities. The preproduction phase of formative evaluation included review of adolescent development, vocational development theories, and recruitment in other professions. The product development phase included prototyping a recruitment toolkit and evaluating the prototypes through four focus groups of high-school-aged teenagers in three U.S. cities. Focus group transcriptions were coded inductively using classical content analysis. Four themes emerged: (1) create a network of interconnected media, (2) tell authentic stories with real people, (3) personal contact is important to teenagers, and (4) offering a variety of media types will appeal to the largest array of teenagers. Sentiments toward prototyped media showed that teenagers spoke most often and positively about videos. Social media and career fair channels had the most attention, but the attention was largely critical and contained suggestions for improvement. The categories for accessibility/availability and information were coded most frequently when discussing media. During the discussion, participants described interpreters as social, communicative, and knowledgeable about cultural and natural history. Teenagers related most positively toward being outside, communicating knowledge, and being interested in cultural or natural history and interpretive media. These results show that future iterations of a recruitment media toolkit should (1) increase and centralize an online and social media presence to connect information and improve availability/accessibility; (2) retain a variety of media types, but include more videos; and (3) highlight the action and variety of jobs within interpretation.