Feature
Small team, big ambitions
The Business Placements Service (BPS) is offered by a small team of enterprise support specialists, based within the Faculty of Arts, Business & Science. Its mission is to facilitate the opportunities which the business world can offer to students and graduates in line with the university’s strategic goal to support business and entrepreneurship, helping to boost the regional economy.
Businesses in Cumbria and the North West are now able to get a boost from an injection of expertise from the region’s graduates thanks to funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and a consortium of six regional universities, including the University of Cumbria.
We are currently running a project called Unite with Business which offers small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) in the North West a business support programme, to increase business innovation, performance and productivity or to address a skills shortage within that company. The project will run until December 2012.
Business support is provided via graduates and final year university undergraduate students, who would work within the businesses for a period of 20 days at no cost to the business, with the nature of the work being to address a skills or resource shortage within the company—for example, designing or redesigning a website, developing a communications or marketing strategy or even prototyping a new product. The student or graduate is paid for their work via the programme leaving the business free to concentrate on the project brief.
Ewan Pullan, project manager at University of Cumbria said: “This is an exciting project with real benefits for the SME business community but also for those students/graduates engaging with the diversity of business placement opportunities on offer.”
All graduates and final year undergraduates, regardless of university of origin, are eligible for consideration and the 20 days can be on a full-time or part-time basis. Opportunities to participate in the project are emailed on a weekly basis, via the ‘Opportunities Knock’ email notification system. Students and graduates interested in participating should contact the Business Placements Service directly on 01228 616315 or register to receive the weekly notification which also contains Unite with Business opportunities at
www.cumbria.ac.uk/grab.
Do you know a business that would benefit from participation in this project? If so please ask them to contact the Business Placements Service on 01228 6161315 or via email at
jobsandplacements@cumbria.ac.uk
BPS team members (left to right) Steve Minto, Pippa Greenwood and Ewan Pullan
The Business Placements Service also works with all types and sizes of businesses in Cumbria and North Lancashire to find current EU students or graduates with the skills required to complete short-term business projects (between two and 13 weeks). We are also able to help with projects that do not fall within this timescale.
The Business Placements Service can also find students or graduates for longer projects for a comprehensive and diverse range of business needs; from a short placement (2–13 week) to longer term projects and placements such as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. Knowledge Transfer Partnerships involve a graduate working full-time on a significant business project for one to three years. Their work is overseen and supported by an academic working within the business for half a day a week.
The relationship between Unite with Business and schemes such as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) can be seen in the diagram below, identifying how Unite with Business sits within the family of KTPs and other relevant schemes managed by the university.
Further information on the services to businesses offered by the university can be seen on the Business Services’ webpage at
http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/AboutUs/FacultyABS/Enterprise/ BusinessServices
Strategic
Full KTP Short KTP
Tactical
Unite with Business & BPS
20 – 60 days 10 – 40 weeks 12 – 26 months
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