Learning Through Consulting

Industry and Community Partners

Industry Beans (brokerage via NISPP)

Consulting

University

RMIT University

Innovative Features

Co-designed with industry or community
Increased use of brokers or third parties
Investment elements
Engaging with SMEs

Enablers

Key enablers of the Industry Beans project included:

A flexible and responsive lecturer.
An industry partner who was enthusiastic and a keen participant.
The brokerage provided by NISPP, which works regionally to connect business in the North of Melbourne with tertiary providers in the area, connected RMIT with an appropriate business.
Communication protocol set in the beginning of the project, where all student questions went via the RMIT lecturer to the team at Industry Beans.
Industry Beans is a business attractive to students, so students were interested and motivated.

For more information

Please refer to the Northern Industry Student Placement Program website for NORTH Link:
http://melbournesnorth.com.au/industry-placements/

The Northern Industry Student Placement Program (NISPP), delivered by local economic development organisation NORTH Link in northern Melbourne, approached Industry Beans to see if they were interested in engaging with RMIT University to provide students with a WIL experience. Industry Beans acted as the client in a consultancy based model.

Industry Beans sources, roasts and brews quality specialty coffee and provides an immersive ‘crop to cup’ coffee experience at its flagship and satellite cafés. It has developed relationships with partners across multiple countries to ensure depth and sustainability of product supply. Currently, Industry Beans employs 60 people.

This project was a whole-class, full semester, credit-bearing research activity for Master of Marketing students, with 10 teams each researching and reporting on a different global opportunity for Industry Beans.

Industry Beans met with the students at three points. Firstly, with a formal presentation in class about the business and about what they would like to achieve from the project. Secondly, at concept stage, and finally Industry Beans hosted a night at their flagship café where the students presented their findings. Industry Beans provided students with comments on what they’d done well, and how they could develop their work further in their final reports.

Impact / outcomes

Students: students gain valuable insight into a company that is looking to increase scope and reach on an international market. Further, Industry Beans created a Marketing Internship and is hosting several data analytics placements as a direct result of this project.

Industry Partner: the result for Industry Beans was comprehensive research reports covering 10 different markets, which provide them with a solid starting point for future planning. Industry Beans were impressed with the level of care and effort that went into the student work, and most of all with the students whose work involved thinking ‘outside the box’.

Teaching Staff: this type of consultancy-based learning opportunity, using a real business, is more motivating, engaging and rewarding for students, resulting in higher course evaluation data.

Student Assessment

Students’ final client presentations and reports are assessed by teaching staff as part of the unit requirements.

Quality Indicators – Evaluation

NORTH Link conducts verbal feedback sessions with Industry Beans, RMIT and three students to evaluate the project. RMIT conducts student evaluation surveys following the completion of each unit.