University of Wollongong (UOW) Southern Highlands celebrated the completion of its inaugural Univative program at a celebration at its campus in Moss Vale on Friday, July 13.
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Univative is a student consultancy program that provides students with a unique opportunity to work in multi-disciplinary teams, meet working professionals and gain industry experience.
A team of six students from the Business and Arts faculties worked with 2WYR 92.5FM youth radio on a ‘real world’ project, providing recommendations on strategies to re-brand and to engage with local youth.
Their 72-page report was presented to the 2WYR board, which included a presentation attended by members of the local community.
The Univative team engaged with several research methodologies, including a survey of youth in the Southern Highlands, to investigate 2WYR’s brief for re-branding and expanding youth engagement in the Wingecarribee Shire.
A key recommendation of the report is that 2WYR should establish the fully functional interfaces of a website and streaming app as well as engaging further in social media.
The report recommended the station utilised apps which are currently available to enable streaming of content – including music, podcasts and up-to-date information on what’s happening in our area.
Another recommendation is the establishment of a community engagement officer role, to create contacts at schools and local organisations, and to recruit active participants from young people.
The team also researched appropriate funding and grants to finance its key recommendations.
2WYR Board member Joe Panetta thanked the team for the comprehensive report.
“We have had some of these ideas in the back of our minds – this report gives us the detail, background and tools we need to work on rebranding and engaging local youth”.
Tania Goodman, Careers Consultant at UOW Southern Highlands, said the experience opened the students’ eyes to the complexities and challenges of the real world.
“The Univative experience situates students as consultants, giving them first-hand experience of what it’s like to work on a real community project, and then to present their recommendations to a panel of industry representatives” Ms Goodman said.