From education to employment

Activate Learning business students to create bus tour attraction for Oxford Bus Company in new employer-led project

Activate Learning business students visited the Oxford Bus Company headquarters today to start an exciting new employer-led project.

This unique partnership will see 70 level 3 first year students create a new bus tour attraction in Oxfordshire for the local bus company. 

Students at City of Oxford College will gain experience in operations, marketing and resources and will explore and analyse the Oxfordshire tour market as part of the project.  

Aidan Arnold, Faculty Manager for Business at City of Oxford College said:

“Doing this project will develop team-working skills in students that will be used to creatively solve a real-life problem facing a local business.  

“This will open them up to a variety of issues covering all aspects of a business. It will also have the additional benefit of helping students to identify a specialism within the business world that appeals to them.” 

Oxford Bus Company collected students by bus from the City of Oxford College city centre campus before welcoming them to their central bus depot in Cowley to brief them. 

In teams of three, students have been set the task to develop and expand the bus tour provision currently offered in Oxfordshire.  

Phil Southall, Managing Director at Oxford Bus Company said:

“We hope to help students build their skills, enabling them to be work ready.  

“We want to inspire students to work for us in any of the variety of roles we offer – including finance, marketing and human resources, in addition to the obvious driving and engineering positions.” 

The project will focus on a ‘millennial’ demographic, with students proposing a new two-day bus tour to depart and arrive from Gloucester Green Bus Station in Oxford city centre.  

Phil Southall added:

“They can also provide us with insight into what the millennial generation want from a bus tour and the features that they would like to see.” 

This bus tour must include an overnight hotel stay and meal plans as part of the package.  

In order to complete the project, students will create an individual professional report and will pitch their market research and bus tour proposal as a group to a judging panel of Activate Learning staff and management from the Oxford Bus Company later in the year.  

About Activate Learning: A forward-thinking education group working across further and higher education, schools, apprenticeships and training. We transform lives through learning.


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