The BA (Hons) Creative Advertising programme takes great pride in the industry engagement that the course provides. Live client briefs, agency visits, alumni mentoring, visiting speakers and employer portfolio mentoring visits had become part of the fabric of the programme. But when COVID hit, the programme team were faced with the challenge of how to connect their students with real-life employers, briefs and experiences without being able to arrange the usual face-to-face activities.
Through a combination of social media networking (LinkedIn), video calling (Zoom) and virtual whiteboard technology (Padlet) the programme team were able to get former graduates of the course – now in senior roles at one of the most respected and well know ad agencies in San Francisco (Goodly Silverstein & Partners) – to speak to the students, set a brief and have the students present their responses.
The student levels of student engagement with this project were excellent. There was 100% attendance for all the sessions, with an average mark of 65% for that project across the year group.
In addition to this, the team arranged a group video call with nine recent graduates of the Creative Advertising, who have all successfully found placements and permanent roles during the pandemic (quite possibly the most challenging period for new creatives to enter the industry).
The call, offered to all students across all levels, was an opportunity to get valuable, firsthand accounts of how Lincoln Creative Advertising graduates were able to find work, making the experience feel less intimidating and uncertain for current students.
The feedback from students was, once again, excellent, with the majority of them connecting with alumni on social media. This not only helped build the students’ professional industry networks – crucial for a successful start to any career – but also effectively set-up self-initiated mentoring opportunities that many students have already further developed. As one student fed-back:
“That was brilliant – I have loads more questions to ask and just hearing them chat between themselves was really helpful too! We should definitely do another one!”