The University Of Wolverhampton’s Challenge Academy programme has been designed to offer companies access to our student and academic base to work on current business challenges which they are facing. The Challenge Academy will provide a consultancy network of students, who will undertake short-term projects on behalf of businesses. Participating businesses and students will receive support from Academic and Practitioner Mentors who will oversee projects and add academic support, advice and guidance, where needed.

Supported by Business Solutions and Careers and Enterprise, students will benefit from a package of support aimed at increasing their employability and businesses will gain access to the talent and knowledge of our student and academic base. 

Students

Boost your career prospects with real life business experience

Do you want to get ahead of the competition and improve your employment prospects through exposure to regional businesses and institutions?

Designed to improve your employability experience, Challenge Academy can help to kick-start your career.

Enhance your CV and gain valuable experience solving business issues as you study.

Challenge Academy is student-led and is intended to fit around your existing studies. With academic supervisors on-hand throughout to provide guidance, the programme is linked to learning and develops practical knowledge.

Are you working towards your dissertation or a research project? Engaging with the programme can provide an excellent basis for applied study.

Apply your understanding of academic theory and see first-hand how your innovative ideas can be implemented in practice, to enhance capabilities and increase company growth.

With businesses seeking short-term support in a wide variety of development areas, there is an opportunity for you to make an impact in a wide range of areas such as legal advice, support with social media, marketing, HR, design or IT issues, market research, competitor analysis, Search Engine Optimisation, HR employment practices and product design.

To sign up for Challenge Academy please complete this form for students. Read Challenge Academy's Privacy Notice.

Businesses

The student-led solution to develop your business

Challenge Academy is designed to provide short term support to regional businesses and institutions.

Supervised by academic mentors, undergraduate and postgraduate students collaborate with organisations as part of a consultancy network to tackle existing business challenges.

The programme acts as a platform to locate talent, and provides an opportunity for students to engage with the business community, whilst enhancing their employment prospects.

You can gain access to University resources and academic expertise via this student-led programme. By applying cutting-edge theory, students can implement innovative ideas and utilise their skills in areas including; market research, competitor analysis, Search Engine Optimisation, HR employment practices and product design.

Whether you require legal advice, or are seeking support with marketing, HR, design or IT issues, Challenge Academy can support your organisation to improve its capability and competitiveness.

To sign up for Challenge Academy please complete this form for businesses. Read Challenge Academy's Privacy Notice

How to access our services

To access support through Challenge Academy, the first step is to write a challenge brief with clear expectations, outcomes and deadlines. To ensure that the challenge stays on track, monitoring and guidance will be included in the brief. The University will appoint an academic mentor to work with you and guidance will be provided to facilitate this process.

Before allocating the challenge to students, the University will review the brief and confirm that it is suitable for students. The project is designed to relate students’ skills and experience to the workplace, and to develop a range of transferable skills and competencies which will contribute towards their employability.

Prizes and incentives can often generate extra interest and publicity for a challenge. These may take the form of competitions, prizes, placement opportunities or internships. These can be discussed at the outset and are at the discretion of the client.

In some areas projects may incur expenses (eg, materials for artwork, stationery, necessary travel, telephone use for market research). Where this is the case, a budget will be identified and agreed in advance to fund essential costs. The client and academic mentor, will ensure students manage the budget allocated for the challenge.

Contact us

For more information email: FossChallengeAcademy@wlv.ac.uk