This project is part of NTU's commitment that all students will benefit from work-like experience opportunities embedded into their course, allowing them to engage directly with industry and develop essential professional skills, knowledge and attributes for future career success.
Project background
The increase in opportunities for students to complete some form of work experience has been of increasing importance at NTU. With strong industry links, NTU students have several opportunities to gain exposure to real life projects, placements and experiences. The British Horse Society (BHS) is the UK's largest Equestrian charity, with over 150,000 members, and is committed to supporting the future generation of those working in the equine industry. Our Equine Sciences courses complements study towards the internationally recognised BHS examinations. From this, the opportunity arose to work with BHS further to provide a valuable experience for students.
The project was initiated by Dr Kelly Yarnell, Principal Lecturer, who had previously worked as a Welfare Executive for the British Horse Society (BHS). During her time there, she helped to produce advisory literature, which required updates. This is where Kelly saw an opportunity to provide our students with an engaging work-like experience challenge. 26 students were invited to take part in a live project brief set by the BHS - to update advisory literature in terms of scientific content and target this at a younger demographic.
The project brief set to students:
Objectives:
- Work with industry to disseminate scientific topics and knowledge to a range of audiences
- Communicate effectively through written work and develop reasoned arguments for your work
- Demonstrate transferable skills through the ability to prioritise, plan and manage time in a work-like context
Deliverables:
- Portfolio including a storyboard and webpage
- Presentation of your project pitch and storyboard, delivered to the BHS
- Pilot video that could be turned into a long format (YouTube) and short format (social media) video
This project made up one first half year, Level 5 module. Each week, students studied research methods content for a two-hour session and focused on the BHS project in another two-hour session. Students first met with the BHS in October and the showcase took place in April.
Total duration of the project: 7 months
Project timeline
The project started with a visit to the BHS headquarters, where students discovered more about the charity and the task. Students were then put into groups and were set to work for two hours each week for the duration of the project. Students worked closely with Dr Kelly Yarnell who has close connections with the BHS, and started by analysing the previous advisory literature.
Simon Elliott, Managing Director at digital and creative agency Diversity, worked with students to provide expert digital marketing input and training on how to create storyboards, social media and web content. Following this, students worked in their groups to generate ideas and concepts for the project.
The project concluded with a presentation to the BHS in April, which showcased all of the students work throughout the project. Students were asked to explain their work, talk through why it would be suitable for the target demographic, and justify their reasonings.
British Horse Society on their experience taking part:
The BHS had several motivations for participating in this project. To name a few, they had an existing project that they needed support with, they wanted new ideas for the business and they could see the value that engaging with people in the industry could provide. Emmeline Hannelly, Welfare Education Manager at the BHS, believed that their objectives had been met and said: "The BHS is committed to supporting the future generation of those working in the equine industry. This partnership provided us with the opportunity to support students in a new project that we'd not completed before. It also provided my team with skill development opportunities. I feel there were a lot of benefits for both organisations. We have been very impressed by the quality of work submitted by the students and their overall engagement with our presentations and their visit to BHS headquarters."