Abstract

This article reports on research conducted on students’ skills development in a Business Clinic setting in a post-1992 university. Framed withn the ‘understanding, skills, efficacy and meta-cognition model (USEM)’ of Knight and Yorke (2003) the findings offered insight into students’ professional development on live projects and revealed the opportunities and challenges for the university. In an already crowded curriculum, academic staff welcomed the initiative. A key challenge for the university was how to ensure that the value of academic knowledge could be retained, within the necessity to provide students with practical, vocational skills development. While ensuring rigorous evaluation procedures for both the employers and the students, further challenges surrounded the complexities of integrating live projects into the current pedagogical structure. The opportunities, however, were positive, resulting in new business links with local employers, whereby partnerships for business engagement and opportunities for students’ internships/placements commenced.