Transforma't 2026 – Marketing and Key Professional Skills

Universitat de Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya Balmes University Foundation

Activity Details

Transforma’t is an in-person and intensive introduction programme for first-year students on the Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Business Communication (academic year 2026–2027), organised by UVic-UCC at the Faculty of Business, Communication and Law, Vic campus. Dates: 21–25 September 2026; schedule: 3:00–6:00 p.m.; scheduled duration: 15 hours (five sessions). Facilitators: Manel Arribas and Guillem Diaz. Experiential, challenge-based learning: participants form teams operating as consulting firms, address one of seven proposed challenges (six business contexts and one open challenge), identify audience needs, conduct research, check information, develop alternatives, make decisions and defend a proposal to a simulated client.

Objectives

• Support the transition to university, peer connections, mutual trust and a sense of belonging to the degree programme.
• Encourage self-awareness, identification of personal values and strengths, and reflection on professional interests and future goals.
• Introduce collaborative work in complementary teams, role allocation, task planning and constructive handling of disagreements.
• Develop an initial approach to solving marketing and communication problems through research, data and reasoned decisions.
• Foster creativity, oral communication and critical, ethical and verifiable use of AI.

Activities

Throughout the workshop, participants will actively work on:

• Connect and explore: welcome activities, getting-to-know-you exercises, personal reflection on “past–present–future”, an initial challenge, introduction to seven challenges and individual preferences.
• Build the consulting team: explore five natural roles (visionary, organiser, communicator, connector and activator), create teams, identify personal and shared values, analyse and reframe the problem, assign responsibilities and build a work plan.
• Research: frame research questions, create a research plan, conduct interviews and observations, consult reliable sources and benchmarks, agree an AI-use protocol, undertake fieldwork and synthesise findings.
• Decide and propose: interpret data, identify three insights, generate alternatives, establish and weight criteria, apply a decision matrix and design a feasible proposal.
• Communicate and reflect: prepare and defend a short team pitch with questions, receive feedback, compare a final challenge with the initial one and develop a personal improvement plan.

Competencies

• Critical thinking and information literacy: distinguish facts, assumptions and opinions; check sources and evidence.
• Creative thinking and innovation: identify opportunities, explore alternatives and develop proposals.
• Applied research and customer focus: frame questions, observe, interview and interpret insights.
• Problem-solving and decision-making: evaluate options against explicit criteria and justify choices.
• Teamwork and interpersonal skills: collaborate, listen, recognise complementary strengths and manage friction constructively.
• Self-awareness, initiative and self-directed learning: recognise roles, values, contributions and areas for improvement.
• Oral communication, reasoning and synthesis: build and defend a pitch while responding to questions.
• Digital literacy and responsible use of generative AI: use it as an aid, verify its outputs and retain independent judgement.

Award Criteria

• Documented attendance and participation in programme sessions, as recorded by the organisers.
• Engagement in personal activities and collaborative work within the consulting team, including contributions to research, analysis and proposal development.
• Participation in communicating the team project and in closing reflection activities, according to the evidence available.

This badge recognises participation in a learning experience; it does not certify individual mastery of every skill listed or, by itself, award ECTS credits.