In the past 5 years, 70 marketers have graduated from NBCC Saint John with a Business Administration 2‐year Marketing Diploma. These marketers are entering the workforce with practical applied learning experience, which primarily comes from experiential learning through engagement with the local community.
Students take a minimum of five courses with me throughout their college career, each of which specifically involve an applied research project. The program has built a solid reputation of students working with local industry and non-profits to help solve current challenges.
For each applied research project, local companies give a presentation/pitch to student about a current business challenge. Students then self-select into teams, or work individually, and determine how they will solve the company’s problem as well as achieve the course competencies within the timeline assigned.
My role as the instructor is to introduce key theory to provide insight on the tools and processes that students can then apply directly to the project. My main role is to guide, mentor and challenge the student to learn by doing.
To supplement the academic theory, guest speakers from various industries are invited to speak about topics such as SCRUM methodology, creative problem‐solving methods, financial and legal framework, market research methodologies, social media monitoring, various advertising and marketing tools, etc. All projects involve direct communication with the organization involved to gain necessary background and further insight into the industry, organization or problem. Additional networking opportunities are also afforded to the students throughout the second year.
In the previous five and a half years, there have been more than 265 student interactions with 46 local companies or non-profit organizations. To directly demonstrate the nature of the research the local organizations can be broken down in the following way:
20 Non-Profits received valuable insight into business challenge areas including social media strategies, marketing plans, target market analysis, event planning, creative development, to help better use government and donor funds
9 companies in the Start-up phase received market analysis and innovative approaches to solving current business challenges
9 companies exploring market development strategies were provided with researched and analyzed opportunities to make commercial progress
6 companies evaluating market penetration strategies received creative execution and marketing strategies to tackle areas of growth
NBCC grew student connection and engagement with internal marketing campaigns
I'm extremely proud of how students consistently rise to the challenge. They prove to me and to our community that College Works! If you are interested in learning more about how your organization can be part of these experiential learning projects, please contact me!