Encouraging people to reach for new experiences, the novelist E.M. Forster famously urged, “Only connect!” The BCIT School of Business + Media certainly recognizes the importance of connections. For over 50 years, the School has connected both students and industry professionals with opportunities to network, collaborate, and solve real-world problems.
Many programs offer Business Consulting Projects (BCP) from January to mid-May, where students work in teams of three to solve real-world industry challenges. “Each project involves substantial market research, which the team then uses to put together a business development plan, marketing plan, marketing communications plan, or business plan,” explains Tom Jopling, Marketing Management Instructor and BCP Coordinator.
Each student team consults weekly with a faculty advisor who offers suggestions and checks that their work is on track and up to industry standards. The team also confers weekly with the client. “At project’s end, they deliver an in-person research report and business plan to the client and advisor.” says Jopling.
The fee for a company to enlist a BCP team is $750, or $500 for non-profits. Many clients place the real value from $10,000 to as high as $100,000, Jopling relates. “They get top-quality work and students get amazing industry experience. Clients say that students working for such an extended period of time and getting to know the business is unparalleled. A BCP is not an internship or practicums. It’s an actual consulting gig.”
In one recent BCP, a well-known local food manufacturer sought to expand. “His BCP student team assessed different markets across Canada and how to develop them, such as grocery and specialty-food stores. In Alberta, they arranged for media spots where he was launching his products. It ended up being very successful for him,” says Jopling.
Learn from industry experts
Program instructors are industry experts. They are deeply connected to industry and often still work as industry professionals, says Daniel John, Program Head, Professional Real Estate. “We want to keep students not only up to date with industry changes, but ready for the next curve.”
In real estate, for example, “there are constantly new ways of leveraging technology to improve interpretation of market data, like being more efficient about identifying properties a buyer will be interested in. Professionals have to be highly skilled in using the new tools, not to mention keeping up with ever-evolving policies, rules, and regulations.
“Seeking a dull, placid job? Probably this isn’t for you,” adds John. “But for those who want a dynamic career, it’s an exciting time. Students in our program experience first-hand how industry is always changing. They understand about being able to adapt to change; about being a lifelong learner.”
Get resources for executive training
No question: lifelong learning is a hallmark of success. Professionals know that by connecting back to learning, they not only grow in their own role, but increase their company’s efficiency and productivity.
For training opportunities, many of them look to the School of Business + Media. As Amy Fell, Program Head who leads Corporate and Industry Training, describes, “We help the already accomplished and experienced to identify their bigger goal: the skills, tools, and productivity training they might need. We then provide activities with expert practitioners and group work to help them see how to apply what they’re learning to their situation and work context—and then to develop the final piece, an action plan.”
The training, which can be delivered conveniently close to busy managers, reflects the School’s People, Purpose, Productivity model. “We define a clear purpose for the training and identify and address gaps such as skills (People, both individuals and teams), resources or tools (Productivity), then clarify the Purpose of the clients’ work and the benefit of changes to realize their potential.”
The School also offers popular learning retreats in the form of Executive Field Schools in locations like Bologna, Italy, renowned for its food, scenery, and its cooperatives. “As an established business model, Bologna is the perfect setting for our Executive Field School based on Cooperative Economics,” says Fell.
Home or away, by connecting with the School’s learning opportunities, professionals understand better their unique skills and how to feel more confident about using those skills. As for employers, “by investing in employee development and advancement, they show they care. Employees then tend to share more of themselves. It is a reciprocal arrangement: ‘Invest in me and I will invest more of myself in you.’”
For more information, visit the School of Business + Media: www.bcit.ca/business-media/.
