Business consultancy

[Becki Simmons, Founder,  Spark Community Space]

Spark Community Space was started because nine years ago I had brain surgery. So overnight I went from working to never being able to work again. So the charity was started so that people that maybe look the same but with disabilities can spark back into life, they can find purpose and worth. 

I was contacted by the University of Portsmouth about whether I would be interested to have students come in to help knowledge exchange and to help the charity grow and be more effective in the city, and boy did they do that! 

The team that the University of Portsmouth sent in were professional from day one, great at timekeeping - they have been awesome. 

[Archie Rendle, BA (Hons) International Business]

One of the projects I worked on was about community space, which was Campaign 25. I was really proud of the project, when you see that something you've produced in the University can actually help the charity and help the local community, it's something to really be proud of. 

The academic theory is really important but putting it into practice is kind of another challenge in itself. In terms of the Knowledge Exchange you can learn a lot from the business itself. I definitely think it's made me more employable. 

That's the important part of the University of Portsmouth getting involved with business, it makes them realise that the companies need them. I needed them but I didn't know now I needed them and I think that's why more students should sign up, because together they become more employable. 

Presenter: Learning-by-doing encapsulate the ethos of the University of Portsmouth Business School where innovative teaching methods and strong links with local businesses enable students to gain real-world consultancy experience.

Jonathon Gibson headed to the south coast to learn about the impact of this approach.

Jonathon: When you're looking for a job experience counts, but how do you get experience?

Ben Metcalfe is the CEO of Landau, a specialist marine services company, and he's setting these final year business school students a real life consultancy challenge.

Their task - to assess the cost and effectiveness of current sales and marketing activity and to devise a sales and marketing strategy for the next five years.

The business consultancy project was set up by the University of Portsmouth Business School to give students real-world experience.

Yilin: So I can learn more about the business, what they are doing and what what kind of products they sell.

Jonathon: On site visits like this one are a valuable part of the process but this is more than a fact-finding mission. It's giving students real-life experience of working with clients outside the classroom.

Yilin: So I think face-to-face sales can get more emotional connection with customers.

Jonathon: Real world learning back in the classroom is helping to inform their own research. And they have to get things right - after all if the client takes on board their recommendations it could change the way his business operates.

Ben: Its pressure but it's something that you need to work with because in real life when you get a job, you're going to deal with real pressure. You have to turn up and deliver on a day and you have to show your value for what you can bring.

Peter: Real-world learning is incredibly valuable because it helps students to increase their chance of getting the kind of jobs and careers they want. But across the Business School and the Faculty of Business and Law we have a very strong focus on employability and having a range of learning modules that have very much that real-world feel to it.

But in order to make that transition between University and their future careers this experiential learning - actually trying it, getting that feedback, adjusting - is absolutely essential.

Jonathon: It's not just a one-way street. That's why every year 60 local businesses like Landau get real value by engaging with the university, giving them access to a pool of students supported by experienced academics.

Ben Metcalfe: It gave us resources we didn't have to look at problems we didn't have time to look at, so it gave us a big business opportunity for a small business environment.

Jonathon: And after months of hard work it's time for the students to share their findings with the client.

Ben: Today we're going to do a presentation.

Our main focus was to come up with three recommendations.

Yilin: In your sales team, your team structure is not very clear.

Ben: Another area that we think you're weak in is your social media.

Jonathon: Presentation over, what will he think?

Landau team member: Well I think it's very perceptive to be honest, our sales team do have too many tasks to do and actually to focus on sales was a really intuitive thing for you to pick up in the short amount of time that you've been able to spend in the business.

Jonathon: What do you get out of working with groups of students like this?

Ben Metcalfe: So it brings in fresh thinking, and also you know a lot of people might consider the fact that they're so young as a disadvantage but absolutely not, it brought in certain new energy and ideas that actually we hadn't even considered before.

Jonathon: And that's not just good for clients like Ben. Portsmouth Business School attracts students from around the world with valuable differing perspectives.

Yilin: Maybe the ways of thinking are different.

We can get many different ideas from each other.

Ben: It was the first time I've worked with people from different countries, you'd get a different perspective on things and then then you could use that perspective to may be tackle problems in a different way.

Jonathon: It's one illustration of how Portsmouth Business School is preparing its students for the world of work by giving them the experience of solving business challenges.