Co-creating the Future Workforce: Partner with Us

At Manchester Metropolitan University, we’ve been asking ourselves a simple but important question:

Who really gets access to meaningful experience, and who gets left out?

For many students, opportunities like internships, placements or employer-led projects sit outside the curriculum. Students are expected to engage in these initiatives on their own time. They’re extremely competitive and in some cases can be offered on an unpaid basis or require time and flexibility that not every student has. The reality is that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds can be disproportionately excluded from these experiences.

And yet, these are the very opportunities that build confidence, networks, career direction and opportunity.

To try and address some of these barriers, we’ve developed a new Live Project Briefs initiative as part of our commitment to Work-Integrated Learning designed to ensure that every student, regardless of background, has access to real-world, employer-connected experience as part of their degree.

Rather than expecting students to seek opportunities outside their studies, we are bringing those opportunities into the curriculum itself.

And this is where we’d love to work with members of Pro-Manchester.

What Are Live Project Briefs?

These are structured, credit-bearing projects where students work in teams to tackle real challenges set by employers.

They’ve been co-designed by our academics and are aligned to key themes shaping the future of work, identified in the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report.

• Sustainability
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

Our Live Project Briefs are intentionally broad and adaptable. Examples include:

Sustainability

• Reducing carbon footprints across operations and supply chains
• Designing strategies for responsible consumption and production
• Creating workplaces that support staff wellbeing and long-term sustainability

Artificial Intelligence

• Developing ethical AI solutions to real organisational challenges
• Prototyping tools such as chatbots, predictive models, or insight dashboards

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

• Strengthening inclusive recruitment and progression pathways
• Designing interventions to address barriers across the talent pipeline
• Creating initiatives that enhance community impact across Manchester

Place-based Innovation

• Exploring how organisations can contribute to a more liveable, inclusive Manchester
• Addressing challenges such as digital exclusion, wellbeing, and access to opportunity

A Shared Investment in Manchester’s Future

We know that many organisations across Manchester are already doing important work in areas like sustainability, inclusion, and community impact. This initiative is a chance to connect that work more directly with education, and with the next generation of talent.

We are currently in Phase 2 of the initiative, working with employers to refine and contextualise these project briefs so they align with real business challenges.

This is designed to be a light-touch, high-impact collaboration. Employers are invited to:

• Help shape a project brief aligned to their strategic priorities
• Provide a short introductory video to set the context for students
• Share relevant resources or insights to support student research

If you’re interested in exploring how a Live Project Brief could align with your priorities, we’d love to start a conversation. Please contact the project leads Lindsay Halliday at [email protected] and Lisa Law at [email protected]