EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: HOW TO DEVELOP PROFESSIONAL SKILLS IN COMMUNICATION AND ADVERTISING STUDENTS

One of the challenges in higher education is for students to learn how to apply the theoretical concepts, methods and techniques seen in lectures to real life professional situations. In order to overcome this challenge, professors should encourage values such as confidence, culture, communication, creativity, commitment and technical skills. This article analyzes experiential learning as a methodology for educational innovation that provides students with a space in which they obtain hands on experience and self-reflection, rather than the theoretical information, allowing for personal and professional growth through the teaching process. This research was performed with two groups of students enrolled in the degree of Communication and Advertising at UNITEC (Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana). Students developed practical abilities such as: problem identification in communication, city brand design and advertising planning. Through this process, a tourism marketing project focused on the promotion of the city of Santa Lucía, in Honduras, was developed. The results of this initiative suggest that experiential learning can improve the development of leadership, decision making and problem solving skills in university students.