The Undergraduate Consultancy
The fundamental premises are (1) undergraduates can produce valuable work for professional clients, and (2) local industry has plenty of questions that they would like answered. This is the first time The Undergraduate Consultancy (‘UGC’) has been available as a RISE course and we encourage science and business undergraduates to join us for an experimental year.
We are valuable to our clients as we have access to significant volumes of information that we critically analyse to provide succinct overviews of current thinking. UGC teams will be trained in desk-based research techniques including Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs).
The course runs for six weeks, spanning the Christmas break, meeting weekly as either face-to-face workshops or MSTeams sessions. Significant support is provided for literature acquisition/evaluation and the creation of brief SLR reports and slide decks. This is an active experience that expects participants to gather and evaluate evidence for their clients, including ‘out of class’ tasks to bring back to workshops and meetings to share with collaborators.
Our clients always have significant impact regionally and beyond. The specific clients will depend on the interest of applicants, but will likely include (1) Director of a vibrant Manchester-based sustainability consultancy that has employed UGC alumni, and (2) Managing Director of an international award-winning Cheshire-based agrobiology consultancy.
We are seeking students from scientific degree courses who are willing to undertake desk-based research in these subject areas, ideally as 2nd or 3rd year undergraduates or as postgraduate students. Clients have expressed a strong interested in expanding into business-related themes, and we are excited to use RISE as the platform to invite business students to join our team.
Applications should provide a brief overview of: “Potential value of desk-based research to professional clients”. Please include some indication of your personal interests in scientific or business-related research, particularly in fields of environmental sustainability. No citations/references are required and the paragraph should be a maximum of 200 words.
Associated Badges:
In A Nutshell...
- Experience consultancy... developing skills of criticality, professional communication and business effectiveness.
- Make genuine impacts... by informing senior leaders in the region and influencing their business and thinking.
- Develop new professional networks... using current online tools.
- Independence with support... evidence your skills under supervision from a team leader.
- Earn up to 300 Rise points ... which can be recognised within your degree.
Schedule
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10:30 to 12:00 on 20/11/23 - John Dalton E421
Introduction to the Consultancy -
10:30 to 12:00 on 27/11/23 - John Dalton E421
Desk-based research and SLRs -
10:30 to 12:00 on 04/12/23 - John Dalton E421
Professional Writing -
10:30 to 12:00 on 11/12/23 - Takes place online
Communicating findings in text -
10:30 to 12:00 on 15/01/24 - Takes place online
Communicating findings orally -
10:30 to 12:00 on 22/01/24 - Takes place online
Final reports workshop