Abstract
This study explores students’ perspectives of live business projects, a form of experiential and work integrated learning, as an assessment component in an International Marketing course. Twenty-two focus groups were held with students participating in an international business plan competition organised at an Australian university. Using thematic analysis, we focus on three dominant themes typical of the focus group data: how live business projects prepared students for the future, how such projects motivated students to engage with and take pride in their work, and how the students linked the projects to the wider world outside of the university context. Live business projects might improve employability of graduates and engagement with course content, but students also indicated that the increased workload may be a source of stress. Educators should feel confident in the benefits of live business projects, but may also need consider how to ensure appropriate levels of work and responsibility on students and maintain the art of relationship management with industry partners.
Universities have received much criticism for under-preparing students for the workforce, for being disconnected from reality, and for failing to catch up with industry trends and provide students with an applied understanding of the business world (Daymon and Durkin, 2013; Reed, 2015; Selingo, 2016). Traditional approaches to education can no longer equip students with the necessary skills so that they can be successful in the modern workplace environment. Scholarly enquiries and business reports have pointed out the prevalent gaps in the employability skills of business graduates (e.g., Abbasi et al., 2018; Jackson, 2016; Jackson and Chapman, 2012; Karzunina et al., 2018), such as creative problem solving, communication, teamwork, critical thinking, leadership and adaptability skills. As a consequence, universities are now under significant pressure from students, academics, policy makers, and the business sector alike to provide high-quality, relevant, and impactful business education (Pucciarelli and Kaplan, 2016).
