As part of a business field project with Teach For Austria, students from the Bachelor’s program in Corporate Communication at FHWien der WKW developed sustainable communication concepts aimed at engaging future university graduates.
How do you inspire students to join a two-year education program focused on supporting children from disadvantaged backgrounds? This was the challenge presented by the non-profit organization Teach For Austria (TFA) to part-time students in the 6th semester of the Bachelor’s program in Corporate Communication at FHWien der WKW during the summer semester of 2025.
Communicating clear value to university graduates
In close collaboration with coaches Leyla Tavernaro-Haidarian and Stefan Schiel, six student agency teams each created a customized communication strategy tailored to a specific university target group. The main challenge was to communicate the value of the TFA Social Leadership Program in a way that was clear, compelling, and emotionally engaging.
During the final pitch to TFA in early May, the teams impressed with original, well-researched, and strategically sound concepts. Their ideas ranged from bold guerrilla marketing initiatives and testimonial campaigns to mini-documentaries, VR headsets for career fairs, social media challenges, and even a “Spritzer” stand designed to spark conversation.
Feasible and impactful ideas impress Teach For Austria
Carina Schubert-Wachter, Head of Communications & Talent Acquisition at TFA, was impressed by the students’ creativity and the practicality of their proposals:
“The presentations truly inspired us – they were bold, creative, and highly relevant to real-world practice. What stood out was not only the strategic depth of the concepts but also how easily they could be implemented. In the hustle of everyday work, it’s often difficult to think outside the box and explore new approaches to communication. The students’ ideas revealed just how much potential lies in courageous, target-group-specific outreach. Even during the briefing and rebriefing phases, their insightful questions helped us identify blind spots in our internal communication that we now plan to address.”
This project once again highlights the importance of applied learning at FHWien der WKW. Students had the opportunity to put their theoretical knowledge into practice while working on a real-world project with strong societal relevance.