Aims

The overall purpose of the module is to develop students’ understanding of the complex challenges faced by organisations / companies in the arena of sustainability and the linkages between these specific challenges and the wider UN Sustainable Development Goals. The module provides students with the opportunity to work with an external organisation on a problem and generate a sustainable solution. The students will work in small teams with colleagues from other degree programmes and bring principles and practice from their own disciplines to application within the solution. At the end of an intense period of development the team will pitch their idea to the challenge sponsor having considered social, economic and environmental aspects of their proposal. The module allows students to participate in a problem based, experiential learning challenge, and to consider future career development opportunities.

Outline Of Syllabus

Activities before companies challenge
*Introduction to the module, career opportunities and skills development.
*Placement opportunities and study abroad event (linked to Careers fair)
*Teamwork and multidisciplinary skills
*Student selection of companies challenge topics linked to sustainability and UN Sustainable Development Goals

Companies challenge activities:
*Company challenges are presented, Students split into groups to work on specific challenges. Lecture and
activities on problem solving, enterprise, and the UN sustainable development approach.
*Research skills (finding information on innovations) and development of research ideas; student teams meet
their challenge sponsors to discuss ideas and gain early feedback. Independent team based study
*Skills development on how to pitch ideas (Pecha-Kucha video) and how to write a company project report.
Independent team based study.
*Development of ideas / case supported by meeting with the academic team and pitch practice.
*Student teams pitch their ideas (sponsor feedback). Shortlisted groups compete in final elevator pitches
(students and sponsors vote for the overall winner); followed by company network event.

Post challenge week
Company project report submission, group peer assessment, and self-reflection (Skills profile in line with
the graduate framework and the UNESCO student key competencies for Sustainability.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The lectures provide an introduction to the format of the task, ways of working and establish the underlying terminology and principles involved in responsible and sustainable innovation in a global and specific context (knowledge outcomes). The workshops and guided independent study allow students to develop skills required to work within teams seeking sustainable solutions for the challenge sponsor and to reflect more widely on opportunities to develop their profile further outside of this module (knowledge and skills outcomes). The student led small group activity allows students to engage directly with the external organisations and present specific solutions to the sponsors (skills outcomes).

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

As the format of the module is predominantly a problem based, experiential learning challenge, with the aim to allow students to develop professional skills in a multidisciplinary team based setting it is not appropriate to measure performance on the normal academic scale, including self and peer assessment. The self-reflection exercises will challenge students to think about their contribution within multidisciplinary teams and how they develop their employability skills and sustainability while working on a solution as part of an authentic assessment. The ‘pitch’ presentation will assess oral communication skills and the ability to summarise the salient points on PowerPoint slides. The short report (business proposal) will assess professional skills.

An alternative individual assessment will be set for any student who is not able to work in a group due to personal extenuating circumstances (PEC / SSP).