Sam Dunlop

Developing career-ready skills in Marketing

I chose to study Marketing because like the creative aspect of it and how it plays into the business world.  

As a Network75 trainee, I also work in marketing for a social housing company called Cardo Group. I like how Network75 allows me to apply my studies to actual work. 

Being local and living in Caerphilly, I chose to study at the University of South Wales because of the location, but also because the Marketing course at USW has three accreditations for professional bodies.  

I went to two USW Open Days. It was very engaging. I met a couple of the course leaders, and we did a team building activity involving Lego! It was quite interesting and very innovative. 

Whilst gaining professional experience working at Cardo Group, I’ve also had opportunities for work from inside USW. People from the music department ask me to help them with their social media marketing and designing assets like logos. 

The Marketing course has helped me to develop my organisational skills, strategic thinking and problem solving. I like the course leader Callum. He's very fun and interesting. I like the modules as well, especially the creative ones like digital marketing tools and techniques.  

Throughout the course I’ve collaborated on a lot of team projects. I’ve also developed my event management skills. One of our team projects was we had to work together to plan a USW Christmas event. That went really well.  

We also get to work on business briefs where we all develop a marketing plan and then companies will choose the best one. It's quite competitive.  

The facilities here at USW are great too. We have access to insights platforms where you can get real data for your assignments. I find that really useful.

Thinking about the future 

When I graduate, I want to stay with my host company. I like the benefits I get with them. My career goal is to be a marketing manager.  

My advice for someone thinking about studying Marketing at university is to look into the modules before you're studying… and definitely start assignments before the deadline!