Assignment 1 - Research Brief PDF

Preview

Summary

Assignment 1 - Research Brief Work Integrated Learning assignment...

Description

ASSIGNMENT 1 – MKT20019 Research Brief – Work Integrated Learning (WIL)

By: Jessica Gonzalez Student No: 102 831 927 Word Count: 1480

Executive Summary

The Swinburne Work Integrated Learning program (WIL) is a program offered to eligible undergraduate students the opportunity to gain real work experience in the way of placements, internships or professional placements as part of their degree. Great effort by the WIL department has been undertaken to encourage student participation into the program through various messaging strategies such as emails, visits during lectures, noticeboards/posters, flyers and various social media channels to name a few. The current participation rate from students is only 20% registered with 16% completing the program leaving a 4% drop out rate. This research brief has been broken down into 4 sub sections that include: 

Background – Both internal and external factors that aim to look at potential threats that could be responsible for the programs low participation rates.



Marketing Problem – How can Swinburne improve their marketing strategy to increase the number of student enrolments by 40% and keep dropout rates under 5%? How can Swinburne provide international students with more suitable placements taking into consideration any potential barriers? What knowledge and interest do students have regarding WIL?



Research Problem – Identify which messaging strategy worked best to engage students including interests’ students have in the program and the placement options available for international students



Research Objectives and Questions -

Which include specific questions that need to be answered and align with the research and marketing problem.

This brief will attempt to answer these identified issues and improve on the current WIL departments attempts to increase program engagement.

1

Table of Contents Executive Summary Background

1

3

Internal 3 External 3-4 Marketing and Research Problem

4

Marketing Problem 5 Research Problem

5

Research Objectives and Research Questions Research Objective 1:

5

Research Objective 2:

5

Research Objective 3:

5-6

Appendix 1:

5

7

References 8

2

Background Internal Swinburne’s work integrated placement program offers students the opportunity to gain real industry experience through paid placements, internships or industry linked projects while completing their studies. The program aims to deliver on its guarantee to offer eligible students the “confidence, skills and real industry experience you’ll need tomorrow, today” (Swinburne 2021). Paid placements are offered to third year undergraduates with a credit score average, with a choice of either a 6 month or 12-month placement. Internships are a little different and unpaid, students can choose to undertake an internship over a semester for 1-2 days or up to 140 hours approx. Alternatively, students can choose an intensive mode internship for a 6-week duration over the summer or winter term (Swinburne 2021). Given the advantages of these work placement options the engagement rate by students is quite low with currently out of the 20% who register for the program only 16% complete, despite various marketing strategies being used to gain the attention of students the engagement rate is low. There are both internal and external factors that contribute to this situation. Swinburne’s 2025 strategic plan identifies key areas where the university wants to improve, referred to as moon shots Swinburne key objectives are to ensure:    

Every Swinburne learner gets work experience; Every Swinburne graduate gets a job; Every Swinburne partner gets a tech solution; Swinburne is the prototype of global best practice. However, despite Swinburne’s attempts to address key issues facing the university and with the WIL departments attempt to reach students through various marketing strategies this hasn’t worked and is not producing the desired results for more students to engage into the program and increase completion rates for those who are currently participating in the program.

External

Covid-19 has been one of the primary causes of disruption seen to universities with students now being forced to study online including students who are on placements. According to a recent study that focused on social work students on placement during the pandemic, key 3

insights that could assist with improving how placements are handled in the future were identified and include lack of support from their placement provider, no IT support and guidance and lack of informal and incidental learning from other social workers (Amadasun S 2020).

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics covid has also seen a significant decrease in international student arrivals due to covid with universities scaling back or removing courses all together (ABS 2021). For those students who remain in the country and continuing their studies a survey conducted by the Australian Research Council which looked at how universities handle international students in work related placements concluded that the following were of concern to international students:     

Visa status Different cultural expectations/recognition Marginalised due to their lack of power/social network Placements unevenly distributed Inconsistency with work placement plans across institutions

This information has highlighted a clear need for further understanding and investigating by the university on how they can assist international students better by taking into consideration barriers that may not apply to other students but is significant to addresses the objectives of this program which is to increase engagement and participation.

Marketing and Research Problem The WIL department has been unable to increase student enrolments into the program. The methods which are currently being used include:      

Emails Visiting students during lectures Noticeboards/Posters Flyers Social Media Blackboard announcements

Despite the various messaging strategies being used this hasn’t translated into the desired outcomes and as such further investigation needs to be conducted into what social messaging strategy would work better to increase student engagement and interest. Effective social media advertising strategies must reflect a socialised context, organisers need to understand the social interests of their customer-base in order to expand ( Mohammad T 2020).

4

In order to further understand the social interests of students refer to Appendix 1 which lists the top 9 reasons for people to use social media. Entertainment was considered the third highest reason people are using social media. This information can form the first step in targeting key messaging strategies to students who are “interested” or “entertained” by the message being delivered by way of linking students interests and align this to the placement information being delivered to eligible students to achieve a successful outcome.

Marketing Problem: How can Swinburne improve their marketing strategy to increase the number of student enrolments into the WIL by 40% and keep dropout rates under 5%? How can Swinburne provide international students with more suitable placements taking into consideration any potential barriers? What knowledge and interest due students have regarding WIL. Research Problem: Identify which messaging strategy worked best to engage students, find out what interest students have in the program, what is the percentage rate of current international students registered in higher education institutes, what type of placements are available for international students with barriers such as language and culture and what impact has covid had on WIL placements?

Research Objectives and Questions Research Objective 1: Identify which key messaging strategies works best to engage the interest of students into the WIL program   

Which social media platform is used by eligible students the most? What current messaging strategy being used has gained the most attention from students? What are competitors using to inform their students of WIL and what has been their success or failure?

Research Objective 2: What placement types and support is offered to eligible international students that identify as having barries?   

What percentage of eligible international students are registered with Swinburne? What support is offered to eligible students with cultural needs? What financial support is available to international students who wish to participate in the program but can’t due to finances?

Research Objective 3: How has covid impacted the universities decision making regarding WIL?   

What feedback is available from students regarding virtual learning? How has covid affected students’ ability to work? What financial strain has covid 19 placed on students? 5



What impact has covid had in regards to the number of eligible international student rates? ie: having to move back home or drop out?

The above-mentioned research objectives and questions aim to provide some insights into how the current marketing strategies used by the WIL department can be improved on to achieve the goal of increasing enrolment rates and decrease drop out rates.

6

Appendix List

1.

7

References

ABS 2021, ‘Government Finance Statistics, Education, Australia, Australian Bureau of Statistics, viewed 3 December 2021, .

Nuseir, M, 2020 ‘Is advertising on social media effective an empirical study on the growth of advisements on the Big Four [ Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp], International Journal of Procurement Management, vol.13, vol.1, pp 134-142, viewed 1 December 2021, < https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332312053_Is_advertising_on_social_media_eff ective_An_empirical_study_on_the_growth_of_advertisements_on_the_Big_Four_Faceboo k_Twitter_Instagram_WhatsAppInternational_Journal_of_Procurement_Management_2020 _Vol1>.

Swinburne 2021, 2025 Strategic Plan, Swinburne University of Technology, viewed 30 November, 2021, .

Swinburne 2021,Work Integrated Learning, Swinburne University of Technology, viewed 29 November, 2021 .

Tran. L, Soejatminah.S 2017 ‘Integration of Work Experience and Learning for International Students: From Harmony to Inequality, Journal of Studies in International Education, vol. 21, no.3, pp.261-277.

8...