Industry feedback

Almost 1200 local and national businesses have directly contributed to this real-world learning experience in AMB240 since its inception in 2005. This engagement with industry—through donation of real products or in the capacity of virtual mentoring via QUTopia TV (industry mentors typically being high level marketing professionals or QUTopia graduates now working in marketing)—enables students to make strong connections between theory and practice. For example, at an early stage of the semester mentors provide advice to students in response to an assessment that requires student teams to outline their core product and the key issues being faced when developing their marketing plan.

Students post videos to QUTopia TV, a YouTube clone site that we designed and purpose-built for QUTopia. In this video, questions are posed and mentors respond by adding comments to the video and leaving contact details for verbal discussion.

Local mentors will often attend the market days to interact with their students.

“ QUTopia has involved marketing professionals seamlessly and the integration between theory and practice in this unit is shown in the experiential learning approach so much so that I (and many of my industry colleagues) would be shocked if this was discontinued. QUTopia really sets the benchmark for authentic learning of marketing skills.”