Bringing the real world to students
The Vega Brand Challenge & Grant Fund
“Vega evolves from training studios and lecture rooms to an experimental space existing of simulated consultancies. The consultancy teams are dedicated to their Brand Challenge 24/7 for a full period of 6 weeks in the months of August and September of every academic year,” says Dr Carla Enslin, Academic Head of The IIE, Vega School of Brand Leadership.
In a follow-up to the FirstStep.me interview with Dr Carla Enslin, FirstStep.me spoke to her about the Vega Grant Fund. The grant, like most student funds, is there to provide deserving students the financial support they need to pursue their studies at Vega.
However, Vega goes one step further – instead of sourcing funds, Vega generates the purse needed by converting the various Vega campuses into hubs of dedicated real-life project activity. Agencies and companies thus have the opportunity to introduce real-time challenges that will benefit from the input of fresh blood or thinking. In lieu of the strategic and creative input from three individual student teams, companies invest in one year’s fees for a deserving student. In return, Vega students pitch on real world projects to companies, their agencies and meet up with professional feedback cycles on proposed business, brand and communication strategies, conceptual direction and creative executions.
According to Dr Enslin “Vega Brand Challenges ensure students gain a genuine understanding of how to conduct a zero-based assessment of a brand situation and how to frame problems with insight. Thus gaining valuable experience in working in multi-disciplinary teams as they go about developing original and meaningful solutions”.
“Presenting compelling arguments in a boardroom environment is one step closer to understanding the demands of the world of work”she adds.
The Vega Brand Challenge & Grant Fund
It seems that the Vega Brand Challenge concept is a confident first step into the working world for students and an industry demonstration of capital wisely spent on the development of a stronger talent market.
“Brand Challenges are embedded in the curriculum of all of our programmes and have been part of the Vega way of training since the inception of the school. In 2014 the Vega team of Navigators guided just over 80 multi-disciplinary student teams working on a range of challenges - from city brand to commercial brand challenges, from not-for-profit initiatives to social innovation movements,” says Enslin.
The Vega business principle has created a student fuelled funding scheme that almost seems to be a student utopia of sorts. With students collaborating with other students by successfully completing projects and generating the funding needed for study grants. An all-round win-win that illustrates a practical approach to addressing student debt.
About: Check out the FirstStep.me original career interview "Dr Carla Enslin and the freedom to learn"and find out more about Vega School of Brand Leadership.
