Vocational Business students at Nelson and Colne College Sixth Form have been given marketing tips and advice from top local creative and digital marketing agency Concept4.

The Business Studies department at Nelson and Colne College Sixth Form has an outstanding reputation for helping dedicated students gain the skills and experience needed to be successful in the business world. With an excellent track record of local, regional and national competition success, Business Studies students go on to secure places at some of the best universities in the country, or move straight into employment with top employers.

In particular, there is a focus on developing ‘real’ industry knowledge through a programme of visits, trips and expert guest speakers. The Business Studies students were therefore thrilled to welcome Creative Director at Concept4, Gavin Cameron, to their class. Gavin talked about the importance of creativity and ‘thinking outside the box’ – using a range of online examples to illustrate to the students how creative thinking can yield real profitable returns.

As part of the lesson the students were split into groups and asked to come up with ideas for marketing campaigns after being given a specific brief. After presenting their ideas to their peers, the students were then able to see the real-life case study and find out how it was so successful.

Curriculum Leader for Business Justine Thatcher said, “We were delighted to be able to welcome Concept4 to the classroom and I’d like to thank Gavin for agreeing to come and meet with our Vocational Business students. Marketing is an exciting sector to work in, and one which offers a range of fantastic careers, from design and social media, to web development, print and copy-writing. By meeting with Concept4, the group were able to get their own ‘creative hats’ on and they came up with some unusual and rather brilliant concepts for the brief they were given. We are excited to be launching our Career Academy in September 2013 and hope to build links with local business leaders who will then be a pivotal in developing the education for young business brains in Pendle!”