Mentoring program gives students a ''taste of the real life''

To prepare students for life in the working world, MODUL University Vienna offers a mentoring course for the students in their last year of studies. The concept of this dynamic new program is to give students insight into business management, where they are faced with real world problems that challenge them to use their acquired knowledge and skills to come up with possible solutions.

BBA students Ayman Almusallam and Stefan Schwarz summed up the program and their experiences:

''To show the students what it is like to be a tourism professional, the mentors that guide andcounsel them range from big hotel chains to profitable businesses in the tourism and hospitality industry. The organizations answer questions concerning the tasks and help the protégés succeed in their goals. This process enables the students to develop their personal and professional skills, and to give them a taste of their future career life. In this year’s mentoring class, five industry partners teamed up with MODUL University Vienna to work with eleven students.

The partners selected for this year’s mentoring course are eminent representatives of different industries. PKF Hotelexperts GmbH, represented by Michael Widmann, is a consulting company that serves the tourism, hospitality, travel and real-estate industries, and aids them in planning different developments. Laurentiu Florea is an MU student who worked on the project “Development of Hotel Groups in Central and Eastern Europe”. Over a period of 5 months, regular meetings and feedback sessions offered a “taste of the real life” as tourism consultant. Laurentiu commented that “it was a valuable experience to gain know-how from a consulting company, since I have always been curious about the duties of a consultant and the level of knowledge and competences that they have.”

The Vienna Tourism Board is the official destination marketing agency for the tourism sector of the city. Manuela Vergud from the online marketing team worked with Julia Löschenbrand, Bernhard Gamlich, and Eva Koutsouris on a project which aimed to evaluate and analyze the online presence of the organization. Students had to analyze and benchmark the major city tourism websites in Europe. Furthermore, they evaluated the acceptance of the Vienna Tourist Board's website among their visitors and developed ideas to improve the overall performance.

Martina Maly was the mentor representing Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group. This company is one of the leading businesses in developing tourism-related products and services in central Europe. Sarah Machado Vieira and David Leonard researched sustainability in tourism, and conducted a customer survey regarding possible actions that can be undertaken by hotels to improve their sustainability levels. Sarah said “the mentoring course was a great experience, as I had the opportunity of combining the theory learned in the university with the practical daily work in an office. Also, I have experienced how teamwork in an actual business is like. The outcome was well received by the media, hence the company held a press conference with approximately 20 journalists.

Vienna Marriott Hotel had a project on sales, marketing, e-commerce, and marketing cluster development. Therefore, an overview of how the different departments in the hotel functions was necessary to proceed further with the project, and for that reason, an intensive introductory process to the departments occurred. Research was conducted regarding the valuable components of Vienna Marriott Hotel and how can they be used to develop a new and an effective marketing strategy and sales plan for the hotel.

Oeticket.com, represented by Sonja Doppler and Nina Pötzl, is a leading firm concentrating on selling event tickets in Austria. The company is strongly focused on e-business, and has developed its own affiliate program. Stefan Schwarz, Ayman Almusallam and Li Yizhuo were challenged to study and understand the concept of affiliate marketing, and performed a benchmark analysis aiming to improve the existing program and give recommendations for further developments. For Stefan, “it was great to work so closely with representatives of a company, and even greater to have your hard work be appreciated so much.” Students were introduced to the different departments and business areas of oeticket.com and Stefan even worked on the case of Oeticket.com within his BBA thesis.

The mentoring course is a great elective course for motivated students who want to learn more about strategies to deal with real business problems and challenges. The course takes place every year, and a number of selected students are invited to join the program. Groups of 2-4 students work on a project, depending on the assignment. The small groups ensure a better learning experience for the individual participants. The whole program is beneficial to both parties, as the students can enhance their skills and knowledge due to the problem based learning, and mentors receive input and suggestions about their business problems from a different view point.''