Research Proposal

A marketing research brief is to be written for the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) program at Swinburne University. A mix of secondary data and a research design using 1. focus groups and 2. surveys for those groups must be identified and talked about – in order to answer the provided Research Questions and Objectives.

RECOMMENDATIONS OR SOLUTIONS for the research questions and objectives DON’T need to be provided, only talk about and explain HOW the new marketing strategy of focus groups and surveys will work to answer them.

The report should written for the managers/clients of the WIL program, outlined below.

Work Integrated Learning Background:
The clients for this proposal, who are involved in the WIL program at Swinburne are, Jill Banforth (academic director) and Wei Lee Wong (professional placement manager). Their role is to support eligible students who part-take in the 6 to 12 month paid work WIL programs in collaboration with Swinburne industry partners that complement their current field of study.

The program allows for practice in a real job environment, contextualisation’s of learnings, development of their professional network, useful mentoring and insights into the industry, and application of course-specific experience to their CV.

However, Jill and Wei have identified that a majority of students aren’t even aware of the programs, let alone their multiple benefits. Only 20% of students actually enrol, whereby 16% of that percentage actually complete the program (Pallant, 2020). Meaning not only is the attraction and participation low within the cohort, but even some students who choose to enrol, eventually drop out.

The clients have already identified that their ‘spray and pray’ methods have generally been unsuccessful. Means such as emails, drop in sessions, in lecture slides, notice boards and posters are great in theory, but whether they are efficient in attracting students is up for debate.
The students that do sign-up list a range of different ways in which they found out about the WIL program, however its clear a new marketing strategy is required to attract the other 80% of students who currently study at Swinburne.