Engaging applied sciences students with the world of marketing.

“Students [will be] given opportunities to experiment and fail as well as succeed, so that they can develop resilience (now the most sought-after skill cited by employers), adaptability, independent thinking and creative problem solving.” Curriculum Design Framework – Brighton 2025 

Work placements and internships are often seen as a good way to develop student employability. However, work-integrated learning combining traditional academic study with student exposure to the world-of-work is an alternative which enables all students to participate irrespective of placement availability or personal circumstances. Inspired by the TV show The Apprentice, Fiona Ponikwer and Bhavik Patel from the School of Applied Sciences designed a learning activity to engage chemistry and pharmaceutical science students with the world of marketing. As part of their study skills module students worked in groups to collect and analyse data then develop marketing materials including an infomercial.  

Dr Ponikwer and Professor Patel followed up graduates via questionnaires and interviews; They published their findings in the Journal of Chemical Education earlier this year. 

Here are some of the things graduates reported when reflecting on the activity. 

“I used to explain this task in interviews and it really impressed the employers. I think it must have helped as speaking to others they think it’s seriously novel.”

“Really useful activity that helped me provide evidence for
job applications due to the range of skills we conducted.”

“When I had interviews it was something I was asked about and often the employers were impressed on what we had to do.” 

“This provides real-life awareness of the job market. Made me more ready for interviews and as I did not want to stay in chemistry, and it gave me more awareness of what I could do with my career. I was able to use this as a great example of my awareness of business and presentation.” 

The paper provides full details about the activity and could be readily adapted for other disciplines. 

The published paper is available at   

Ponikwer, F. and Patel, B. A. (2021) Work-Integrated Learning: A Game-Based Learning Activity That Enhances Student Employability. Journal of Chemical Education 98, 888-896 (Open access) 

An example of one of the student infomercials: