University of Portsmouth launches project to help businesses access support from students

More than 200 students per year already take part in activities including the Business Consultancy Project, student-led Law Clinics and Creative Practice units. All of which offer no-cost consultancy or advice to local businesses and the community.

The university now hopes to increase the number and diversity of students who are involved in these activities, so that more businesses can benefit from a greater number of highly-skilled students who are able to work with them.

Students can develop their enterprise skills and commercial awareness, as well as attributes such as leadership and teamwork.

Peter Hooley, Director of Business Development in the Faculty of Business and Law, said: ‘In any one year, there are around 100 live projects with our students working with a wide range of companies from the Royal Navy and Portsmouth City Council to innovative start-ups and entrepreneurs.

‘These projects provide significant results such as new product development, investment decisions and strategic sales opportunities. This funding will allow us to deepen our partnerships and respond to local business needs and aspirations at a time when it could not be more important.’

The project, funded by the Office for Students (OfS) and Research England, will involve a number of local businesses and organisations including Hampshire Chamber of Commerce, Portsmouth Creates and Novatech.

It aims to evaluate the university’s current knowledge exchange activities and better understand the benefits to students and businesses through engaging in partnerships, engagement with communities and third sector organisations, and professional training – collectively known as ‘knowledge exchange’ activities.

The university is also continuing to support local businesses through running a series of online events designed to help them though these challenging times.

They include ‘#COVID19 Retail: Convincing customers my products and supply chain are sound’ streaming at 2pm on Thursday, April 30 and our ‘Winning in the Solent Region’ Virtual Conference on Tuesday May 19. It will be chaired by Ross McNally, CEO and Executive Chair, Hampshire Chamber of Commerce, and run in collaboration with Solent University and supported by Hampshire Chamber of Commerce.

For more information on all our events, see www.port.ac.uk/events