Insight into the study choice journey of working people in the Netherlands

For several years now, this Lifelong Learning (LLL) offering has been positioned under a single umbrella brand. In order to reach its target groups even more effectively, Leiden University of Applied Sciences wanted to gain insight into the journeys of professionals and employers, with a special focus on the awareness and experiences of people who do not yet use the LLL offering.

That is why we conducted a combined quantitative and qualitative study together with Markteffect, our partner from The Relevance Group. The study focused on three sectors: life sciences & health, education, and healthcare.

Insights & results

1. Concrete insight into the customer journey within the various sectors
2. Insight into the additional wishes and needs of their target groups
3. Applicable recommendations for next steps in the study choice journey

Our approach

We kicked off this process with a joint scoping session. Leiden University of Applied Sciences, the qualitative team from Beautiful Lives, and the quantitative team from Markteffect came together to pool existing knowledge, formulate hypotheses, and identify the most important points of attention. This ensured that everyone had the same focus from the outset and that we were well prepared for the fieldwork.

Markteffect then conducted quantitative research. In this part, they mapped out Leiden University of Applied Sciences’ brand awareness and image within the three sectors. They also compared Leiden University of Applied Sciences’ image with that of two major competitors in each sector. This gave us a clear picture of the university’s position in the market.

Based on the insights gained from the quantitative part, we conducted qualitative research in collaboration with Markteffect. We investigated how companies go about finding a provider of education, training, or courses. Both employees and employers were interviewed so that we could examine the process from both perspectives. This in-depth research was also conducted in all three sectors.

After analyzing both the quantitative and qualitative results, we organized a joint brown paper session. During this interactive meeting, we presented our initial insights in the form of a large overview (the brown paper). This gave everyone involved the opportunity to explore, supplement, and refine the insights together. In this way, we built a final report that was as complete and supported as possible, step by step, which we finalized and delivered after this session.

Results

By combining quantitative data and qualitative insights, Leiden University of Applied Sciences not only gained a clear picture of its current position, but also of the factors that play a role in the choice of an educational institution.

In addition, the insights clarify at what moments and in what places Leiden University of Applied Sciences needs to be visible in the journey. Finally, they offer concrete tools for working specifically on increasing brand awareness and strengthening its image in the relevant sectors.