How will I benefit from taking part in The Birmingham Project?

• Teamwork
  

  Meet new people and make new friends as you collaborate with students from other course disciplines; each group member will contribute their skills and experience to the project. You’ll also learn a lot about yourself during the two weeks; how you think, make decisions, communicate and learn.

• Time management and project management
  In order to successfully complete your project as a group, you'll neeed to collectively decide how you're going to approach the challenge, and plan and prioritise your workload. Our employer partners will also share their project management tips with you on the first day of the project.

• Leadership
  Leadership qualities are important for everyone and can be demonstrated during the course of the project through planning ahead, using your initiative, acquiring knowledge, and providing motivation and direction to achieve goals.

• Communication
  You'll have the chance to develop working relationships with your colleagues, and attend meetings with your group and employer partner. You'll deliver a group presentation at the end of the two weeks to showcase your project to a panel of judges (this will form part of an assessment). The Academic Skills Centre and Digital Skills team will be on hand to give your group some valuable presentation tips.

• Innovation, creativity and problem solving
  Your group will address the project challenge through identifying opportunities and generating ideas/solutions to produce an effective digital resource. There will be a variety of digital skills training sessions on offer to groups during the two weeks to give you the skills you need to create your project outcome; whether it is a mobile app, website, video or digital magazine, to name a few.

• Research
  With support from a Teaching Assistant and Challenge Leads, you'll gather, analyse, and use information, facts, and data to shape your project.

• Exercise your skills and knowledge

Experience interdisciplinary working through engagement with a themed challenge relating to a "real-world" issue. Develop your academic skills and an understanding of how your own subject expertise relates to broader societal concerns.

• Work with employers

We work very closely with employers to ensure that students involved in The Birmingham Project are able to gain an insight and advice about what employers are looking for in graduates. You will have the opportunity to engage with employers at various events and workshops to progress your group project, make professional connections and learn about future opportunities.

• Training and Workshops

A variety of training sessions and workshops will be scheduled during the project fortnight to ensure you can get the most out of the experience and achieve the best possible outcome as a group:

• • Project Management (delivered by external partners)
  • Research Methods and Social Science skills (delivered by our Academics)
  • Team building (delivered by Academic Skills Centre)
  • Type Dynamics Indicator (delivered by Careers Network)
  • Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright and Licensing (delivered by Library Services)
  • Digital Media training - mobile app, Photoshop, website, digital magazine (delivered by Digital Media Skills team)
  • Presentation skills (delivered by Academic Skills Centre)

• Meet new people

One of the key aims of The Birmingham Project is for students from all different course disciplines to meet and share their ideas and different ways of thinking. The project is a great way to meet new people, make friends and develop your networking skills outside of your usual social circles. 

• Recognition

The Birmingham Project will be recognised as a pass/fail module on your University transcript and you will receive a participation and/or winner certificate. This recognition will be particularly useful as a way of evidencing your participation in an extra-curricular activity when you are applying for internships and jobs. N.B. The Birmingham Project is non credit bearing, which means it will not count towards degree credit. 

• Personal Skills Award (PSA)

You can gain 70 PSA points for completing The Birmingham Project. The Personal Skills Award is the University of Birmingham's recognised employability programme for undergraduate students. It enables you to develop, recognise and articulate your skills in preparation for real-world recruitment processes. Visit the PSA website to find out more.

N.B. PSA points can only be claimed by students completing The Birmingham Project from 2017/18 onwards.