Telstra Marketing Academy

This project involved 216 Year 11 students from 7 schools

In Term 3 2008 Telstra (in conjunction with Career Links Programme Coordinator Leigh Killian),  launched an Adopt-A-School Project for schools offering Year 11 Busines­s Studies, entitled the Telstra Marketing Academy™.   The three week voluntary course was aligned with existing school curriculum and provided an opportunity for students and teachers to participate in a real-life learning experience about the marketing practice­s of Telstra.

The Brief

During the course of this case study, student­s were able to develop and use skills in research, analysis, problem-solving, decision-making, critical thinking and communication. They also gained specific understanding of business concepts and plans, established project objectives, identified strategies, market segmentation, product differentiation when implementing marketing promotions and campaigns, community engagement, presentation, creativity and teamwork.

Schools involved in the project included: Belmont High School, Callaghan College Jesmond, Hunter School of Performing Arts, Newcastle High School, St Francis Xavier College, St Paul’s High School, and Swansea High School. The students produced wonderful, high quality presentations and showed their creative flair. The winning team at each school received mobile phones and went on to represent their school at State level in Sydney.

The Results

From the original eight schools in our area that commenced the programme, three schools - Callaghan College: Jesmond Senior Campus, St Francis Xavier College and Hunter School of Performing Arts - completed their project briefs and presented them to Telstra representatives at head office in Sydney on 7 November.

Career Links’ Adopt A School Coordinator Leigh Killian attended the presentation night, and arranged for Telstra to provide a minibus so students and teachers could easily attend, competing against Sydney schools to submit their marketing presentations.