STUDENT BLOG: Maricel Gomez and the Practera Global Trade Accelerator Digital Industry Project

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STUDENT BLOG: Maricel Gomez and the Practera Global Trade Accelerator Digital Industry Project

Thursday, 06 August 2020

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ECU students were recently offered the opportunity to participate in the Practera - Global Trade Accelerator Digital Industry Project. Master of Professional Account student Maricel Gomez took part in the program and wrote about her experience.

“Opportunity knocks once in a lifetime”, I thought I lost the chance of participating in a Digital Industry Project through Global Trade Accelerator (GTA) – Practera Program because of responding to an e-mail invitation later rather than sooner. But, here I am celebrating a milestone in my experiential learning pursuit for completing a 2-week authentic industry project run by GTA – Practera Platform. The Global Trade Accelerator project provides participating students an avenue to conduct a real business international market research aligned to the requirements of the ISO/IEC 17024 of Global Trade Professionals Alliance; and International Market Research, within the GTP Market Development specialization.

In the briefing with Practera’s Program Manager, Zoey Ka, we were introduced to the flow of the project. I was thrilled with the idea of stepping into the journey of a business consultant through the program platform as we undergo the process of completing the international market research for an Australian-based exporter. In this 2-week project, I was teamed with like-minded, brilliant and enthusiastic students from different WA Universities with the goal in mind of producing a well-structured business analysis using different research tools such as PESTLE, Porter’s Five Forces and SWOT Analysis to name a few. These research tools were learned in the four corners of the classroom, but its real application was superlative! It was extremely motivating. I was practically applying the foundational market research frameworks and techniques to a real client.

True to the experiential learning objective as mentioned by Zoey Ka, “Your Experience = Your Responsibility”, we were provided with an exceptional platform by Practera and it was all up to us to maximize the learning experience. The journey as student business consultants began with a client briefing followed by team agreed virtual meetings, thorough research and collaboration of our team. We were made to work effectively in a virtual setting to deliver an outcome within a short timeframe. The efforts we invested paid off when our client was significantly pleased with the outcome of the team’s draft report. With that outcome, we were empowered to advance and finish the final submission on time. In the process, the most rewarding part was engaging in a real-world experience in which, together with my team, we develop global skills such as service-oriented, critical problem solver, collaboration, innovation, culturally conscious and leadership.

Encapsulating the whole learning experience in one word, it would be “synergy” - Collective Effort is Greater than the Sum of the Individual Parts. My deepest appreciation to Edith Cowan University for encouraging its students to get involved and opening World Ready opportunities to explore. Also, credits to StudyPerth Team 1, we made it till the end and our Completer Badge and Certificate of Completion are only the Tip of the Iceberg.

Written by: Maricel Gomez
Researcher, StudyPerth Team 1

School of Business and Law