Marketing students enjoy Work Integrated Learning
That "Work Integrated Learning" stuff really works!
The School of Marketing and International Business has run courses where outside firms and agencies have been “clients” since at least 2008. Today a number of marketing courses see “clients” present to classes about who they are and what competitive problems they are having in the market. At the end of the courses, the top students present back to the clients whose responses are usually one of utter delight or “oops, we gotta lot of work to do…” and generally both. On occasion, the presentations to the clients have resulted in job offers. And every student has a worthwhile line on their CV.
During T1 this year MARK201 Digital Marketing had Hillside Kitchen and Cellar as the client. Owner-chef Asher Boote spent an hour with class in week 3 talking about his history, the values that drive the business, who his clients are and what expectations he fulfils, and his hopes for the future. The questions from students were positive and probing. He then returned to hear what four students each proposed for the digital marketplace including their websites created with the AI-rich system of Cambridge provider Rocketspark and search-engine optimisation application from US-based Semrush. Each student also provided solutions for other digital competitive spaces in social media, as well as ideas for expanding the offerings of the iconic restaurant.
The result…one very happy chef and some very proud students.
“This was great. Normally you do an assignment and it’s over. This was really exciting,” said Abbie Wood. “It was real.”
“I was so proud of them,” lecturer Dr Martyn Gosling said. “The work they did was brilliant, but the way they demonstrated their work… The students gave very professional presentations. Some of the best I’ve ever seen here. They had really got to grips with the business, the market, the competitive landscape, and what this niche firm really does. They deeply understood not only their customer, but their customer’s customer. That’s real business. And the understanding our students derive from engagement of this kind is the real benefit of work-integrated learning. It’s the closest students get to working with a real firm without being inserted.”
Asher arrived at the presentation probably not expecting a lot. He left enthralled. “What made these students so professional is that they had listened to me as the client. They understood and respected my values. I was very impressed by that.”
As for next steps…
“Yeah,” said Asher. “I have got a lot of work to do….”