Abstract
This study investigated a service learning programme (SLP), which was established by the Marketing Department at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in South Africa. The purpose of the SLP was to provide community partners (small businesses) marketing services at minimal or no cost by granting undergraduate marketing students the opportunity to practically apply the theoretical marketing communication teaching in a real-life business environment. The students formed agencies and were required to establish a real-life agency-client working relationship with their chosen community partners (SL clients) (that had little to no marketing communication) to develop a campaign plan in a bid to improve marketing performance. The primary research aim of the study was to examine the influence of the student agency working relationships on the community partners’ satisfaction. The research also investigated the effect of the agency-client relationship on SL client, student agency and SLP measurement variables. A quantitative approach was used to survey community partners that participated in the CPUT Marketing Department SLP over a five year period via a questionnaire. The perceptions of 107 client community partners’ were analyzed via ANOVA to determine the benefits, challenges and experiences of the SLP. The research revealed that a vast majority of the participating SL client organizations were either satisfied or very satisfied with the agency-client working relationships with the student agencies. The SLP agency-client working relationships were also found to yield significantly positive associations with perceived usefulness, lasting impact, overall satisfaction and future participation by the community partners.
Highlights
Service learning (SL) is a form of experiential education where learning occurs through a cycle of action and reflection as students work with others through a process of applying what they are learning to community problems, and, at the same time, reflecting upon their experience as they seek to achieve real objectives for the community and deeper understanding and skills for themselves (Eyler & Giles, 1999)
Over 90 per cent of the small businesses were registered as a PTY (LTD), Closed Corporation (CC) or Sole Proprietor, and over half earned less than R200 000 per annum
A little under nine out of ten student agencies passed the service learning programme (SLP) and nearly 20 per cent passed with a distinction
Summary
Service learning (SL) ( commonly referred as academic service-learning, academic community service, and community-based learning) is a form of experiential education where learning occurs through a cycle of action and reflection as students work with others through a process of applying what they are learning to community problems, and, at the same time, reflecting upon their experience as they seek to achieve real objectives for the community and deeper understanding and skills for themselves (Eyler & Giles, 1999).Many recent service learning programmes (SLPs) have been developed and implemented by education institutions around the world (Garger, Vracheva, & Jacques, 2020; George, Menon, Thevanoor, & Tharakan, 2020; Gonzales, Harmon, & Fenn, 2021; Herlina, Widodo, Madhakomala, 2019; Rodríguez-Izquierdo, 2020) and in South Africa (Botha & Bezuidenhout, 2020; Du Plessis, 2020; Jacobs, 2020), but the research of these programmes have generally focused on the studentorientated benefits derived from the SLP, which include: the ability to apply and master course content and theory (du Toit, 2019; Juaneda-Ayensa, Olarte-Pascual, San Emeterio, & Pelegrín-Borondo, 2019); deeper learning (Matzembacher, Gonzales, & do Nascimento, 2019); increased employabilityReceived Date: 11/06/2021Accepted Date: 16/08/2021Publication Language: EnglishEducational Studies, 5(10), 89-105. Many recent service learning programmes (SLPs) have been developed and implemented by education institutions around the world (Garger, Vracheva, & Jacques, 2020; George, Menon, Thevanoor, & Tharakan, 2020; Gonzales, Harmon, & Fenn, 2021; Herlina, Widodo, Madhakomala, 2019; Rodríguez-Izquierdo, 2020) and in South Africa (Botha & Bezuidenhout, 2020; Du Plessis, 2020; Jacobs, 2020), but the research of these programmes have generally focused on the studentorientated benefits derived from the SLP, which include: the ability to apply and master course content and theory (du Toit, 2019; Juaneda-Ayensa, Olarte-Pascual, San Emeterio, & Pelegrín-Borondo, 2019); deeper learning (Matzembacher, Gonzales, & do Nascimento, 2019); increased employability. The SLP has served the 90 marketing needs of more than 800 small businesses since its inception in 2010
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