Universities UK’s new Future Jobs Roadmap has put a welcome spotlight on one of the big questions facing higher education: how do we ensure graduates leave university not only with knowledge, but with the experience, confidence and skills to thrive in a rapidly changing workplace?
The Roadmap sets an ambition for all undergraduates to have access to meaningful work-based learning by 2035, with 50% reached by 2030. It also calls for stronger employer co-designed learning, better connections between graduates and SMEs, and simpler ways for employers to engage with universities.
At NCEE, this resonates strongly with work we have already been developing around student business clinics and innovation consultancies.
Working with Liverpool John Moores University and universities across the sector, we have been exploring how students can work with SMEs and other organisations on genuine business challenges as an embedded part of their curriculum.
There is an important distinction here. This is not simply another form of work experience.
Done well, business clinics create value on both sides. Students develop the problem-solving, adaptability, commercial awareness and confidence that come from tackling a live challenge. At the same time, SMEs gain access to talent, ideas and university expertise that can help them address issues such as growth, innovation, digital adoption, AI, marketing and productivity.
That leads us to a bigger proposition:
What if every student had access to meaningful, real-world learning – and every SME had the opportunity to access the talent, ideas and expertise within our universities?
Business clinics could provide one mechanism for connecting these ambitions.
NCEE is working with Liverpool John Moores University and colleagues across the sector to explore what it would take to move from pockets of excellent practice to a more systematic approach to student business clinics and innovation consultancies.
This raises some important questions: what does a high-quality model look like? What do SMEs actually need from these partnerships? How can Chambers of Commerce and other business intermediaries help connect universities with businesses? And what needs to change in policy, funding and institutional practice to enable these approaches to operate at scale?
The Future Jobs Roadmap creates an important opportunity to think differently about this agenda. Work-based learning need not only prepare students for the economy. It can also enable students and universities to contribute directly to that economy while they learn.
For NCEE, that is exactly where entrepreneurial universities should be looking: beyond individual initiatives towards new models that connect education, enterprise, innovation and place.
Our next step is to work with our partners to develop a manifesto for student business clinics and innovation consultancies, setting out what universities, business organisations and government could do together to turn that opportunity into reality.