Presentation at the HEA-funded workshop 'Using active and experiential Learning to improve student employability in Business and Marketing'. This workshop was aimed at colleagues seeking ideas and advice about incorporating active and experiential learning into the marketing curriculum or wishing to improve upon current practice. The workshop identified various approaches which enable students to gain valuable employability skills and considered the benefits and disadvantages of these approaches. This presentation is part of a related blog post that provides an overview of the event: http://bit.ly/NanSOJ For further details of the HEA's work on active and experiential learning in the Social Sciences, please see: http://bit.ly/17NwgKX

1. Enhancing employability through
experiential learning
- a project-based approach
Stephen Grady: University of Wolverhampton Business School
Gareth Jones: In-Comm Training and Business Services
Laurren Wood-Bowness: BA (Hons) Business Management Student
Amarpreet Kaur: BA (Hons) Marketing Management Student
HEA Workshop: 14th November 2013

2. Key elements:
IN-COMM live project
Recent Graduates
• Lead generated by the Business
Engagement Team - promoting student
projects as a way of reinforcing relationships
with business organisations;
• Business organisations looking for students
to support them in meeting their objectives;
• Original academic driver for the projects was
to facilitate the transition from education to
employment – therefore aimed at recent
graduates;
• Recognised that if the task was sufficiently
demanding (involving high level skills), a
team based approach could yield multiple
benefits for a variety of stakeholders;
• Specific project :
 6-8 weeks duration
 Local (Walsall) SME – 26 employees
 Training organisation specialising in the
engineering sector
 Task - development of a marketing strategy
Current
Students
Company
Stakeholder
Academic
Mentor

4. Information retrieval skills,
numerical skills, problem
solving skills, independent
working skills
Decision making
skills, strategic skills
Communication skills,
team working skills
Decision making
skills, strategic
skills,
independent
working skills
Communication skills,
team working skills
Academic Mentor: team working skills,
leadership skills, personal learning and
development skills
Company Stakeholder: strategic
skills, personal learning and
development skills

5. Organisational/employer context and
perspectives
• In-Comm Training & Business Services
• Managerial culture & attitudes
• External perception of In-Comm's activities
• Opinions of employees

6. Student team
member comments…
“Great job yesterday, I think we had some
very surprising results and I'm looking
forward to putting it all together.”
“If you could send me your write ups, and
anything else you may have done for the
project, I'll whack it together on Sunday.”
“Just a quick update, I have
booked for us all to go in on
Thursday next week. We're all
looking forward to it, well I am, I
want to see what the thoughts are
on the floor about the management
structure! Can't wait!”
“Very much looking
forward to beginning this
project!”
“I am very aware that the
anticipated start date for the IN-
COMM Training program is next
week...
it's not an opportunity I want to
let slip through my fingers!”
“This sounds like a really
great opportunity, thank you
for believing in me enough to
allow me partake!”
“I've just received the information
for the project. The business itself
seems really interesting, as I'm
reading through its business plan,
marketing tools are jumping into my
head as ways to analyse parts of it
– Ansoff; BCG Matrix … Looks like
a really interesting project, looking
forward to getting started-will be
able to learn a lot from this!”
“I would definitely be interested in an opportunity like this. I
have had experience with the CRM system, using it at a
placement with Marketing Birmingham.”

7. What do the students get out of it?
• The chance to learn in a professional environment;
• Making our education “multi-dimensional”;
• Team and individual working;
• Networking;
• Work experience (and sampling);
• Investigating what motivates real employees;
• Provide possible career direction and perspective.

8. Skills – a student perspective:
• Employability skills!
• Project management
• Research
• Communication
• Networking
• Time management
• Ability to meet
deadlines
• Effective note taking
• Academic writing
• Understanding
leadership within an
organisation
• Recognising and
solving problems.

9. Student engagement in the delivery of
the project outcomes – an employer
perspective
• Students as individuals
• Student/organisation interaction
• True/accurate reflection

10. Issues to consider
• Recruitment of the appropriate abilities/skills mix from the students
and graduates in order to deliver the project outcomes;
• Significant up-front investment of time by the academic mentor – the
higher the level of skills, the greater the need for stakeholder meetings
and management of expectations, development of a detailed project
brief, use of dedicated project management tools;
• Matching staff expertise and commitment to project leads;
• Identification of leads, benefits and costs of project based approach;
• Impact on graduate employability/DLHE stats and action learning
benefits for current students;
• Management of employability enhancement culture within the HE
environment;
• Helps enhance staff expertise, maintain the currency of their own
learning, and increases case study materials for use in the classroom.