Our future. It's in our hands.
In our hands – the thinking behind the campaign
Painted hands campaign image
The skills campaign's eye-catching new advertisements are designed to encourage people to invest time and effort in learning new skills.

"Our future. It's in our hands."

The skills campaign's distinctive and thought-provoking strapline is to be seen all over the country – on TV, on billboards, on campaign literature and in the press.

As the skills campaign gathers pace, getting the message across to its target audience is absolutely key. Advertisements for the campaign must not only capture the imagination of employers and individuals but show exactly how they can take action to access training and learn new skills.

The advertising campaign was developed after in-depth research 		on how people view skills showed that individuals believe they give them the ability to be in control of their lives and help them to succeed in a changing world.

With that notion in mind, the campaign's creative team came up with the catchy strapline "Our future. It's in our hands."

Following on from that, they hit on the idea of putting hands at the very heart of the advertising campaign.

Painted hands are used to show how skills can work in a variety of ways. One of the current advertisements shows a painted hand in the shape of a mountain, accompanied by the words "overcome work challenges with better skills."

Research groups who have seen the advertisements have given them the firm thumbs-up and say they are "memorable, clever and distinctive." 		The launch of the skills campaign will be followed later in July by a series of Train to Gain advertisements aimed specifically at employers. These also use the painted hand canvas and are designed to remind employers of the importance of training and the positive impact it has on business.

In the coming months the skills campaign's hands will be seen on a number of partner campaigns. As the campaign is a joint initiative launched by the Learning and Skills Council on behalf of Government, the advertisements don't feature brands or logos – just details of the campaign website and the skills campaign telephone number and web address.