Nottingham Consultancy Challenge

• Six to eight hours per week for six weeks over the spring term.

• Group meetings: Your success on the Challenge will be reliant on your group’s good teamwork and collaboration, so you’ll need to be flexible and committed to finding time to meet your group once or twice each week. One of these meetings should take place on Mondays. 

• Client meetings: In addition to group meetings, you’ll meet virtually with your client approximately once a week and spend some time working independently on skills development and project work.  

• Three phases of the Challenge: 

• • Week one: getting to know your group, meeting your client for the first time and researching your brief to make sure that you understand your task. 

• • Weeks two - four: work to fulfill your project brief, including meeting with your group and client. 

• • Weeks five - six: produce and deliver a group presentation along with a written report for your client 

The Challenge is open to all current students, regardless of how much experience you have. You don’t need any specific skills or technical knowledge, but a collaborative and positive attitude is important. because of the strong group work element and the links with real-life businesses that invest time in creating a project and meeting with students. 

You’ll need to be:  

• Dedicated and reliable. The Challenge has a strong group work element and you’ll be working with a real-life business that has invested time in creating a project and committed to meeting with you on a weekly basis. Good consultants don't let their team or client down!  

• Collaborative. You'll need to form a cohesive team with a small group of strangers and work together to achieve a result in six weeks. You’re not on your own though, support to develop skills in communication and conflict resolution is provided on the Challenge.  

• Proactive. This experience is designed to be a Challenge. You’ll work on a project that’s randomly assigned, so you can't rely on having pre-existing knowledge of a sector. Projects are diverse and across many sectors so specific training isn't possible; your group will need to use problem-solving skills to address your client’s needs.  

• Independent. The Challenge is a formative experience for many, giving you the freedom and responsibility to arrange much of the workload yourself and with your group. The exception to this is a few pre-planned meetings for availability purposes. You can ask for help at any point, and the NCC manager provides lots of input via the skills development activities, but the onus is you and your fellow students to work through the obstacles as a group and complete the Challenge. 

Each client has selected an issue or a problem that is important to them. They may not have the time, resources or expertise to address the issue, so are looking for your insight.  

Past projects have included: 

• seeking new market opportunities for a science company's unique technology 

• building a community hub for an arts organisation  

• developing a sustainability strategy for a natural health product company 

• creating a volunteer recruitment strategy for an international charity 

Read our blog: why do the Challenge?

Remote working 

The way we all work has been fundamentally altered as a result of the pandemic and remote, hybrid or blended working looks here to stay. Spring’s Challenge will be fully virtual, in part so that we can continue to run it in any circumstances but also because there are real advantages to doing so.  

• You can participate from wherever you’re based 

• You’ll be developing and demonstrating skills that are highly relevant to any future career: working remotely is here to stay, even after Covid-19, so learn those skills now. 

• You’ll meet and collaborate with other students, which isn't always possible face-to-face  

• You don’t need any pre-existing expertise or experience working remotely: if you have access to a computer with a webcam and microphone and an internet connection, you can get fully involved. 

• There are no rooms to book or travel expenses to pay, you can access the NCC from your own home  

The NCC will be mainly delivered through Moodle, Microsoft Office 365 (including Teams) and over email, available to you via your university account. 

Each week will involve some time spent working collaboratively, and some time spent working independently.  Each group will need to be understanding of each other’s commitments whilst also being as flexible as possible to ensure you’re able to meet and make progress.  

Your average week will look something like this: 

• One to two group meeting(s) on a day / time that you all agree  

• One client meeting on a day / time that you and your client agree 

• Online communication with your group and (possibly) your client 

• Independent project work or preparing your presentation and report 

• Time spent on skills development activities

You will need to be proactive and independent on the Challenge, but support is available throughout. The Careers and Employability Service help you to develop the skills you’ll need to succeed on the Challenge, and we ask clients to provide feedback on your output at the end. Support includes:  

• Opportunity to practice giving a remote presentation before the real thing  

• The technical side of delivering a remote presentation 

• How to work well as a group, including managing any conflict 

• Feedback from your client on your presentation, and how well you addressed their business need 

• Feedback from the Careers service on your ability to reflect on your experience and translate it to your future career plans (NAA students only) 

The Challenge is open to all current* University of Nottingham students regardless of year group or subject. 

The Challenge typically receives more applications than there are places available. Students will be scored and ranked according to marking criteria (available with the application form). Where high numbers of applications are received, we may close the application window early and reserve the right to prioritise students who: 

• are in their final year of study and who will not have the opportunity to reapply to this opportunity 

• have not previously participated in the Challenge 

Application criteria

*You must be a current student when the Challenge begins in Spring 2023.