National Stone Centre
The National Stone Centre is an educational charity established 20 years ago on a 50 acre site which contains former quarries, lime kilns, lead mine shafts and a nationally protected geological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
Now National Stone Centre managers want to raise its public profile and attract more schools' and other visitors, which is where our postgraduate students can help.
40 of our students from 14 different countries studying our postgraduate business degrees are working for free to boost business, visitors and schools' interest in the centre.
A real life case for students
Hildegard Wiesehofer, Senior Lecturer for the MSc Marketing Management course at the University, said: "The students will be identifying what those running the Centre want to achieve. Students will use a visitors' survey designed by them, observation and interviews to identify the kinds of things users and staff would like to see going on there."
What the students think
Zambella Pittaki, 23, from Cyprus, is on the MSc Marketing Management degree course. She said: "We do have places similar to this in my country. My father also worked within the stone industry. One thing already that I think they might look at doing here is to make improvements to the café they've got."
Postgraduate student Rajneesh Alreja, 25, from India, added: "It is a nice place but it does need better marketing. I've lived in Derby for six years but I'd not heard of this place before we came here to do the project. I'd like to help them work on attracting more visitors."
