Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
English students benefit from the university’s long-standing partnership with Hallmark, gaining skills and confidence on various industry work placements.
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences has an established relationship with greetings card giant Hallmark. Since 2018 they have worked closely with the company to provide placements for our undergraduate English students.
In return, Hallmark are able gain from the fact that the students brought their relevant academic knowledge and high-level skills to influence a range of projects.
As part of the Applied Humanities module, students have the opportunity to work on a range of live briefs with Hallmark (as well as other industry partners), gaining first-hand experience of what it was like to work in areas that their degrees could lead them to working in.
In recent years Hallmark Cards set a brief which posed questions about how the greeting cards industry can increase engagement amongst 15-24 year-olds, also known as ‘Generation Z’.
Students looked at what it means to connect with each other in the 2020s, what the future of greeting cards might look like in the age of digital media, how inclusivity and wellbeing can be improved, and how hallmark can better connect with customers.
Working with Hallmark’s Writing Studio, the task was to produce a presentation which put forward a new concept or product that could be adopted by Hallmark in response to one or more of these themes. This gave students an insight into what it was like to work on several aspects of product development within a large creative business such as Hallmark. At the same time the company got to benefit from the enthusiasm and some of the amazing ideas produced by our students.
There is both the directly applicable skills acquired through the specific task at hand, but also a wider set of skills acquired through their degree learning, which come into play in this assignment. The module requires that students reflect upon how capabilities – of clear communication, confident presentation, evaluating ideas and outcomes, creative thinking, and listening to audiences - developed in other modules transfer to a live-brief such as Hallmark’s task.
Hallmark Cards was very big step for me, having never done anything like it before. Going in once a week and then every day for a week in my holidays really helped me to gain confidence in an unfamiliar setting and allowed me to experience something that I am very interested in entering into when I finish university.
Every day we were given different creative projects to work on, and we were all really made to feel like a team. I also never once felt like an intern or a student, they gave me important projects and tasks, and were always very supportive when these were completed. We were also given feedback on the projects we completed, as well as being able to assist on other assignments and jobs with the other staff. For me the experience was absolutely incredible and one I am so glad I completed. I came away with so many more skills and far more confidence in new and unfamiliar situations and for that I will forever be grateful.
Study for a research degree at Leeds Beckett and you'll join a thriving academic community in an inspiring and supportive environment. The Graduate School supports our increasingly active postgraduate research community and encourages students to make a difference to the university’s research culture and environment.
Leeds Beckett University can conduct research on your behalf to help you to implement change and realise your business potential. Validating your ideas with academic evidence can be an essential part of winning contracts and fuelling business growth.
