How should be communicated on social media from Working Life Connected pedagogy to Latin American universities? What would be the social media channels and core messages of the communication? That was the challenge assigned by our project’s Brazilian employer U.Experience. Company’s assignment for Laurea University of Applied Sciences students was to find the social media channels to reach the students and teachers of the chosen Latin America Universities. U.Experience is a Brazilian Company promoting internationalization of Universities in Brazil. U.Experience is in charge of the communication and dissemination in the HEIComp project. (U.Experience 2024.)
HEIComp is a project which is funded by the European Union. HEIComp is about bridging the gap between students’ competences and working life needs. It aims to bring students from higher education closer to companies and the companies needs in the job market. HEIComp involves institutions from Portugal, Romania, Brazil, Paraguay and Finland. (HEIComp 2024.)
The project will initially be carried out with pre-agreed University partners interested in the teaching method. So, market entry is not only done through social media, but it is a cheap and visible way to raise awareness and gain more followers on social media channels.
The project team consisted of Bachelor’s Degree students at Laurea University of Applied Sciences. The project team members are studying theory of digital marketing, service design and market entry while they are completing the Working Life Connected project for U.Experience.
To increase understanding, the project team examined websites and social media accounts of 45 universities in Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico and Paraquay. Universities websites and social media platforms could be considered the most common place to inform about education-related issues in addition to meetings.
The project team conducted research focusing on specific universities in Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Paraguay, and Mexico. During the research, we analyzed published content. There were a lot of general information on study related matters. Such as several posts about students studying together or graduating. Also announcements and pictures of events was seen on posts. It was found out that these kind of posts with some text in addition to the picture seemed to get most likes.
The project team was also able to study HEIComp’s analyzed social media data. That data-driven insight and local people comments were valuable. (HeiComp 2023.)
The survey was targeted to the Universities students, professors and managers involved with HEIComp project. In addition to this a lot of social media accounts and publications were researched. Universities websites, Facebook-, X-, TikTok and Instagram accounts were looked through. The project team counted followers, post sharing and likes. Particular attention was paid to find out these three things: 1. Which social media channels were the most popular. 2. Which posts received the most likes. 3. What kind of content was published.
With this information gathered, the project team started planning suitable education related social media posts. Social media posts are aiming at rising awareness of Working Life Connected pedagogy to Latin American universities. The goals are that this will lead to:
1. More teachers interesting in Working Life Connected pedagogy
2. More students be able to try Working Life Connected learning during their studies
3. Rise steering groups awareness that they enable this in their Universities.
One of the aims of the HEIComp-project is to get universities to implement project learning in their curricula. University students then choose project-based learning as part of their studies. Universities create Working life connected Learning journeys for Students so that they can develop their real life professional competencies. (Uusitalo 2024.)
Using Latin American social media to raise awareness of Working Life Connected pedagogy is an important effort that opens up new opportunities for collaboration and knowledge sharing. Publishing posts prepared by the project team leads to awareness raising. By sharing and liking these posts the positive impact of the students’ projects can be seen wider on universities, companies and society. Increased awareness will bring more working life partners on board. Teachers are inspired to familiarize themselves with the teaching method. Students will be able to choose from a variety of working life partners and diverse projects.
The HEIComp project puts Laurea’s LbD expertise into practice in Latin America – Laurea University of Applied Sciences HEIComp brings awareness in Latin America to modern teaching methods like the working life connected teaching method (WLC) where the students learn in projects with real working life organizations. (Laurea 2024.)
Content strategy planning and development of how is intented to attract and engage with chosen audience via content. It is vitally important for any success when it comes to content marketing. (Ryan 2021, 281).
Continuous content publishing the universities will take the lead. When the university announces the course and informs students about it. I am quite sure that those kind of content on posts would be most interesting ones. As well as those that students post as the course progresses and when everything is done.
Business management student Salla Rajala
PROJECT CONTENT
– Project focuses on export of HEICOMP- project to Latin American universities in Brazil, Paraguay, Mexico, Columbia and Argentina.
– HEICOMP project exports Working Life Connected pedagogy (= Project learning in Academic Business and other studies) https://heicomp.com
REFERENCES:
HEIComp. 2024. Accessed 29 April 2024. https://heicomp.com/
Laurea. 2023. The HEIComp project puts Laurea’s LdD expertise into practice in Latin America. Accessed 29 April 2024. https://www.laurea.fi/en/current-topics/news/the-heicomp-project-puts-laureas-lbd-expertise-into-practice-in-latin-america/
Ryan, D. 2021. Understanding digital marketing. CPI Group (UK) Ltd
U.Experience. 2024. Accessed 29 April 2024. http://uexperience.com.br
NOT PUBLISHED REFERENCES:
HEIComp. 2023. Communication and dissemination strategy
HEIComp. 2023. Digital Marketing report
Uusitalo, T. 2024. Project Manager HEIComp interview 9.4.2024. Laurea University of Applied Sciences. Hyvinkää.
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