Queensland has strengthened its ties with the Re:act road safety behaviour change program, today becoming the third state to launch the new national Re:act TAFE program.
As part of Re:act TAFE, graphic design students at Queensland TAFE will be challenged to create a campaign that raises awareness among 16-24 year old road users of a critical road safety issue. This year’s Re:act topic nationally is fatigue.
Queensland TAFE is the third TAFE college to run the Re:act program, following North Metropolitan TAFE in Western Australia and Holmesglen in Victoria. Colleges in South Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales are expected to also run the Re:act program this year, making it a truly national program.
The TAFE students join advertising students from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in participating in the program in the State. QUT ran the program for the first time in Queensland in 2020 and is planning to run the program again in the second half of this year.
Re:act TAFE Queensland program partners Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) and Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ), along with the Hard Edge creative behaviour change agency, will provide feedback to students throughout development before selecting the most effective campaign.
The selected campaign is developed for public execution via media partner oOh!media’s digital assets, including on TAFE campuses and in regional areas.
Re:act and Hard Edge Founder Andrew Hardwick says participating Re:act TAFE students also conduct research with their peers to inform campaign messaging, generating valuable insights for road and workplace safety agencies on the type of messaging that engages a hard to reach audience.
“This target audience research with apprentices and other students allows the Re:act TAFE graphic design students to build on their own perspectives,” he said.
“Whether they’re an apprentice bricklayer up at 5am to get to work or a student working part-time in hospitality until 2am, drowsy driving is a significant safety risk.
“The commitment and support of program partners TMR and WHSQ along with the enthusiasm from Queensland TAFE to get this year’s program up and running with Hard Edge has been fantastic, demonstrating the commitment of Queensland’s road and workplace safety agencies to addressing road safety issues where young people are overrepresented.”
Visit reactforchange.com to learn more about the Re:act program.
An initiative of Hard Edge, the annual Re:act program challenges local higher education students to create a behaviour change campaign that raises awareness among 16-25 year old road users of a critical road safety issue where they are overrepresented.
A panel of university or TAFE, road and workplace safety, and industry partners selects the most compelling road safety campaign in each state, which is then developed and launched on university or TAFE campuses and oOh!media’s digital assets, including its landmark billboards.
Now in its sixth year, Re:act ran in 2020 in Melbourne with Swinburne, UTS in Sydney and, for the first time, Brisbane, through QUT. The program also expanded internationally into London, at University of the Arts London. In 2021, the Re:act program will once again run in each of those institutions and grow further in Australia, running in Perth for the first time with Curtin University as well as in TAFE campuses across Australia. There are further plans for international expansion into Europe, the United States and South America.
