STUDENT CONSULTANCY PROJECTS WITH BUSINESSES GARNERS HUGE SUCCESS

Each year Huddersfield Business School offers its Masters students the opportunity to work with a wide range of organisations on business consultancy projects. Last year this rose by over 95% to 170 students consulting on over 40 projects across 33 different organisations across the public, private and third sectors.

One of Huddersfield Business School's responsibilities is to help and support the business community, with the potential for impacting economic growth and employment. As a key element within its extensive range of business support services, student consultancy projects are seen as an ideal opportunity for students and businesses to actively engage with each other bringing significant benefits.

A student consultancy project provides businesses with the opportunity to explore aspects of their business which they may not have the expertise, resource, or time to undertake. Areas such as business strategy, competitor analysis, marketing and social media and increasingly corporate social responsibility analysis are all areas on which students have consulted.

"We were able to establish a strong bond with our group and are excited to continue the consultancy project next year. As a developing SME in Huddersfield, it was a terrific chance to collaborate with the university in order to improve our relationship with the town’s key educational provider."

Ruby Gascoyne, Social Media Manager, Hollywood Agency.

Jack Woodhams, Co-founder of a charity supporting men’s mental health called Menfulness said he benefitted by receiving recommendations which he has since used for future planning and implementation.

“It gave me strategic options to help support our growth. I can’t thank the university and students enough for their efforts,” he said.

Ruby Gascoyne, Social Media Manager at Hollywood Agency said: “The Masters students provided valuable insight into our business and offered a fantastic range of results and ideas for us to execute throughout our growth period.

“We were able to establish a strong bond with our group and are excited to continue the consultancy project next year. As a developing SME in Huddersfield, it was a terrific chance to collaborate with the university in order to improve our relationship with the town’s key educational provider,” she added.

Some of the students involved in the consultancy projects.

Students who take part in the projects gain work experience, enhance their communication skills, apply the theory they’ve learnt in the classroom to the world of work, and develop beneficial business contacts and networks. Ultimately, they are able to enhance their employability prospects after they graduate from the university.

“I have learnt so much in communicating with the client and working together with my teammates from different backgrounds,” said one of the student consultants.

“It has helped me gain more knowledge and provided me with real business experiences. We worked together as a team and shared different ideas. The student consultancy projects have also taught me how to present my work to the clients when opportunities arise in the future.”

Huddersfield Business School has been running student consultancy projects for several years. Due to an increase in student numbers on the School’s Postgraduate Masters’ courses, the number of organisations worked with in 2022 expanded significantly.  The project has no financial cost to the organisation but there is a commitment in terms of time and people to work alongside the students.

Dr Hayley German, School Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes at Huddersfield Business School, has overseen the student consultancy projects and says this trend is set is set to continue in 2023.

“The project is a fantastic opportunity for our postgraduate students to engage with and support a range of businesses. The practical project enables students to develop the skills of being a professional consultant alongside the academic skill of research,” said Dr German.

“I have seen the benefits to both the students and the business first-hand. It was wonderful to see students, clients, and academics come together as students applied their learning in the real world and presented meaningful recommendations and solutions back to their clients.

“As a project which provides benefits to both students and businesses, I look forward to seeing the growth of this collaboration in the coming years,” she said.

Businesses that have taken part in consultancy projects in recent years have gone on to develop strong business relationships with Huddersfield Business School and has resulted in collaboration on further projects.

Huddersfield Business School is currently looking for organisations to work with for this year’s student consultancy projects, launching in April 2023. If you’d like to find out more about the project and how you can get involved, please email hbsenterprise@hud.ac.uk