Changemaker Challenge

68 Students attended from four level 4 courses; Business Management and Entrepreneurship and Business, International Business and Law with Legal Practice. Teams of 5-6 participants, three streams, four teams each.

Employer: IBM

Challenge set: The challenge IBM set was on behalf of one of their clients - Eco Style Retail, a fashion retailer based in Portsmouth.
We want to be fully committed to sustainable practices in our business. However we have challenges relating to waste and energy usage in our flagship store which needs urgent attention. Design a unique and feasible project that promotes reuse/upcycling and considers both environmental and social aspects.

Impact

Student Feedback:
"I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Changemaker Challenge hosted by IBM and Careers and Employability Service - University of Portsmouth. We engaged in teamwork skills, innovative thinking and problem solving. It was a fun and educational way to deal with real life problems in the business industry in a team. 

92 students (80 students/12 apprentices) from Biomedical Science L4. Teams of 6-7, three streams, five teams in each.

Employer: NHS, Lead Partner Portsmouth Hospital Trust
Challenge: Develop innovative strategies and practices that can significantly reduce or even eliminate the use of single-use plastics in Pathology. You may want to focus on one item and/or on one of the following ideas: Changes to the type or quantity of single-use plastics, Alternative/innovative methods of use, Recycling initiatives and or Education and raising awareness.

Impact:

The impact measure were as follows:

• Feelings of positivity and inspiration increased by 4.4% between morning and afternoon
• Confidence in making business focused decisions increased by 24% between morning and afternoon
• Confidence in coming up with new ideas and solutions increased by 15% between morning and afternoon.

The top skills students felt they developed by attending were working public speaking, communication, team work & problem solving.

16 students from level 4 Business Leadership & Management Degree Apprentices as part of the work-based learning module. Teams of 4-5 participants, one stream with three teams.

The objective of the day was to expose the group to the unique challenges of a business environment vastly different form their own. We aimed to provide them with the opportunity to reflect on their roles within an active team setting.

Employer: Party Hard Travel
Challenge set: With 50,000 customers for 2024, how can we make an extra £10 margin per person, without compromising service and whilst staying true to our values?

Impact:

The impact measure were as follows:

• Feelings of positivity and inspiration increased by 11% between morning and afternoon
• Confidence in making business focused decisions increased by 12% between morning and afternoon
• Confidence in coming up with new ideas and solutions increased by 12% between morning and afternoon

Academic feedback:
"In summary the Changemaker Challenge Workshop was an invaluable experience for out Apprentices. It not only broadened their understanding of entrepreneural ventures but also enhanced their teamwork and presentation skills. I highly recommend this workshop to any Management Degree program seeking to provide their students with real-world business challenges and insights." - Ian Sellwood, Teaching Fellow in BaL

15 students attended (3 groups of 5)
3 hours in total (2 hours for context, idea generation & presentation preparation, 1 hour for presentations)
No employer present, challenge set by UoP team

Challenge set: In alignment with our strategic priorities to become one of the leading universities in environmental sustainability, you are a student team working together on developing innovative solutions and goals for the challenge presented:

"sustainable future for the University of Portsmouth using emerging technologies."

Working in teams, the aim to produce a visual plan and make decisions about what is needed to help solve this challenge.

The students worked well within their groups and presented their solutions, most of which were based around eliminating single use plastics, alternative energy sources wind and solar and recycling facilities.

The Changemaker Challenge was used as an outreach exercise with sixth form students from Woking College and Sixth Form College Farnborough, who were set a challenge by the Plastics Revolution Institute to create a business idea based around generating a reuse system for food outlets in Portsmouth.

The Changemaker Challenge resources provided a good springboard for discussions and encouraged creativity, adaptability and collaboration between the team members.

Teaching Fellow Ian McGowan was aiming to promote the Business Management and Entrepreneurship Course and highlight to young people that entrepreneurship is a viable career path. He says the way I used Changemaker was for outreach purposes rather than in curriculum, however it has a lot of potential to be embedded as it provides a flexible base that can be used in many ways.