Live Projects: A Valuable Addition to a Student’s Work Experience Portfolio
I have been supporting live projects in higher education for both undergraduate and postgraduate students since 2009. Defined as a contained project between an educational organisation and an employer for mutual benefit, when I first started in this role, live projects/briefs seemed to be viewed across the sector as an optional extra. Over the past decade and a half, their importance has risen. Most institutions now have some form of meaningful engagement with employers written into their employability strategies, with some including it in their education strategy. During this period, the terms ‘experiential learning’, ‘work integrated learning’ and ‘work-related learning’ have all become widely used to encompass this, and other similar types of activity.
In 2021/22, there were 2,862,620 students enrolled in UK universities, with 919,940 graduating. Competition to enter the workforce is therefore fierce. But what are employers looking for? According to UCAS, employers are seeking “a mix of technical ability and ‘soft’ skills such as teamwork, communication, leadership, and commercial awareness”. Placements continue to be a popular HE employer engagement approach with proven benefits, but can they meet all employer needs?
A different approach
A placement with a relevant employer can give students an incredible insight into the world of work, enhance their CV, provide networking contacts and give them real examples to use at interview. With high student numbers, however, it can prove challenging to meet demand. Many companies, particularly SMEs, can only offer a placement opportunity to one student. With a live project, one employer can meaningfully engage with large numbers of students. Live project briefs can help universities deliver their employer engagement aims at scale.
As educators, live projects also give us more control over what students are learning whilst engaging with industry. As Professor Mark Peace stated in Wonkhe, ‘We outsource our students’ development for a year to their employer-custodians, with neither the means nor the resource to intervene in meaningfully pedagogic ways. There’s a lot of sink or swim to this.’ Businesses are understandably focussed on earning money, so can they give students a chance to innovate and try out new ideas whilst they are working for them? Many professionals I have met over the years say the thing they miss most about university is the freedom to try out new ideas and the freedom to fail.
Live projects are usually created through a partnership between an employer and an academic. This gives the employer an input and enables the academic to create a brief that ensures students are continuing to learn and push themselves intellectually. If the academic oversees the students during the project, they can also teach new skills, encourage them to try out new ideas, expand their thinking and help them to be prepared if they ‘fail’. As long as the student is reflecting on and learning from their experience, they can really grow professionally and personally from live projects.
An award-winning partnership
At Manchester Metropolitan University, we have a wide range of employers working with us on live projects across the university, both inside and outside the curriculum. We pioneered the innovative Unit X collaborative unit across courses in the Manchester School of Art, as well as the equally groundbreaking and award-winning RISE initiative where students can gain credits towards their degree for taking in part in live projects and other activities outside the curriculum.
We have a longstanding partnership with a leading commercial property company that led to us jointly winning Best Business Partnership at an external awards ceremony. We have worked on many different types of projects with them over the years, including a report into the future of the workplace, film and animations, and an urban greening research project. One in-curriculum project saw students create a textile art installation for one of the company’s buildings. Following academic/employer co-creation of the brief, students researched individually or in in groups before pitching initial ideas to a panel of company representatives and our academics. Selected students used the feedback to refine their ideas and create the artworks, guided by staff. Company representatives visited the university mid-project to assess progress and give feedback.
The new artworks were formally launched at an event with employer representatives, company stakeholders and academics, plus guests invited by the students. The students then wrote assessed reflective journals on their experiences and learning. Feedback from the company was excellent and students gained a wide range of crucial employability skills, plus self-confidence and professionalism. One student created a new type of material during this project with the company providing free legal advice to help her copyright her work. Some student participants have been offered commissions or full-time employment after graduation by the company.
Expanding employer thinking
According to the Institute of Student Employers, around 50% of former interns and placement students were recruited into graduate jobs in the same organisation in 2022. Placements are clearly important for employers, but in my experience, many do not know about other ways to engage with HE. Once employers understand how live projects work and how the students and partners have benefitted, they want to get involved. Projects enable employers to see and get to know larger amounts of students without the extra time commitment of having to supervise a student placed with them.
Expanding live projects across an institution is not without its challenges. It can take months to find an ideal industry partner, negotiate a brief, and match their timescales with the curriculum timetable. Academics need support and roles like mine dedicated to live projects are rare. There are plenty of roles across higher education to support and promote placements, but very few aimed at supporting live projects. AGCAS members can now access the Live Projects Guide, a resource I have created as Chair of their Placements and Work-Related Learning Task Group to help institutions expand live project work by providing advice on how to support academics with live projects, but more needs to be done.
I am not arguing that live projects should replace any other type of work integrated learning, but rather that students need a rich variety of experiences to learn and grow as people and professionals. More resources are needed to unlock and expand the potential for live projects, but at the moment they can very happily sit alongside other initiatives as a valuable way to improve and enhance students’ career aims.
Can live projects be delivered more innovatively? Yes, of course. Everything can. It is an area that needs more research and the freedom to test out new ideas. A useful resource is the Institute for Experiential and Skills Based Learning forum, which has created a community to provoke discussions about the future of experiential learning bringing academics and HE professionals together. The AGCAS Task Group is planning a research project into multi-disciplinary learning across the sector. If you want to find out more, do contact me.
About the author
Marcus Lord is an experienced HE professional and has been building partnerships between academics and industry for live student projects and exhibitions since 2009. He is currently the Chair of the AGCAS Placement and Work Related Learning Task Group alongside his work as External Liaison Manager for the Careers and Employability Service at Manchester Metropolitan University. He worked for over a decade in the university’s Manchester School of Art, helping to develop and support the multi-disciplinary Unit X initiative. Marcus also managed the Unit X Festival at venues across Manchester, as well as graduate exhibitions in London and at the RHS Flower Show. Prior to that, he worked extensively across HE as the lead funding bid writer, business development manager, research support officer, department administration and originally came from industry where he owned his own SME.
