A student’s perspective #Grads4nottm

Part one - The application 

Me and the team

I’m Declan Manning, a third year student on the Business Management and Marketing course at Nottingham Trent University. I recently secured a place on the Graduates for Nottingham scheme or #Grads4notts for short. Graduates for Nottingham is a scheme where students, graduates and businesses such as Experian, Ikano bank and other small and medium businesses such as Appinstitute work together with Boots and the University of Nottingham Trent to resolve challenges facing industry.



Applying for a place on #Grads4nottm

As a third year student  getting increasingly close to graduating I understand the difference varied experience makes to a CV. This was my reason for applying for #Grads4nottm as it gives both a weeks worth of work experience and is a great opportunity for networking. To apply for this scheme, I submitted 250 word document outlining my skills and reasons why I was a suitable candidate for the week long programme. There was over 30 different challenges put forward by 25 different companies spanning from competitor analysis, design work, business & operation development, customer engagement and finally advertising and PR work.

Official #Grads4nottm logo

I chose competitor analysis as I found it best suited to strengths and fit in with the management aspect of my business degree. Before #Grad4nottm started, I was assigned a business challenge that involved completing a benchmarking analysis of the company. For anyone that’s unfamiliar with the term benchmarking analysis, this is an evaluation of the company and its competitors using the same criteria.



Bring on the challenge!

The challenge took place over the course of a week. Our first day was an induction to the scheme at Boots, and meeting the company we would be working with during the week. The following three days involved working on a specific project for the company. Our final day had been allocated to presenting our findings back to NTU and the relevant company. Once we had completed the scheme we had the opportunity to attend a networking session with all of the companies present in #Grads4nottm. This meant that I still had the opportunity to chat with all the companies.

To read part two click here!

Theatre Design Outreach

Tin soldier

Many people think outreach work is focused on grades and improving children’s chances of attending university. While this is a priority and a large part of the work undertaken, it is not the only way in which outreach work supports the community.

Peter Rumney and a team of second year Theatre Design students, working alongside pupils from Mellers Primary School, put together a play for 8-9 year olds as a part of Art And Design Outreach. The play itself was tailored for the young audience, and lasted for only 30 minutes – the intention of the team was to take the audience on a journey through the ‘life’ of a single broken toy soldier.

Why is it important?

“The Theatre Design Course has a long-standing commitment to Outreach work, and to making NTU accessible and inspirational to young people who may not have been thinking that university was a possible route for them. That’s why we’ve developed so many relationships with local schools and colleges over the years, and why our collaboration with SCCO is so important to us and to the university as a whole.” – Peter Rumney academic & technical support

What’s the importance of outreach to the students?

‘As designers, and as graduates who will go on to work in a very wide range of professions, by exploring how young people learn, the undergraduates can reflect on their own learning here at NTU.’ – Peter Rumney

The Theatre Design Students involved in the ‘Tin Solder’ project explained the impact their involvement had on them. Nikki Charlesworth said; ‘It really helped me to understand how to work with children,’ and Ge Hatton went on to explain that ‘The project was important in helping to understand how my work as a designer can be translated into the real world’. Shelley Poole added ‘What I realised was that adults can underestimate just how much children understand about the world and complex things, like their emotions.”’

 

The play was engaging for the children and also helped in establishing a connection between the schools and University. Furthermore it allowed a chance for the students on the Theatre Design course a real-life insight into theatre work.

Tin Soldier is part of an established annual schedule of collaborative performances and the first in a line of outreach work for this year, with plans for Year 3 Theatre Design students to create their own show developed for an even younger children (and potential NTU students) in April with the support of NTU Outreach.