Consultancy projects

A group of three students working at a desk

Consultancy Projects are an interesting and challenging opportunity that look great on your CV!  

What does a consultancy project mean for you?

Several Management School degrees include consultancy or dissertation modules. For some degrees, this is a required part of your studies, while in others, you can choose to take part.

At Lancaster University Management School, if your degree includes a consultancy project, this unique opportunity involves gaining valuable work-related learning and experience with one of our partner companies. You will work in small teams, where you will tackle a real-world challenge to help the company find a solution. The best part is that the experience is embedded into your study time, so you will gain practical experience of using your project management, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills, among others, in a live (but safe to try) environment. Use the prospectus or your course handbook to find out if the option is available in your chosen degree.

Firstly, consultancy projects are an interesting and challenging opportunity that looks great on your CV!  

See how the theoretical knowledge from your degree and the transferable skills from your experience can be put into practice, as well as developing new skills.
Evidence your newly developed consultancy skills, including negotiation, active listening, contracting, collaboration, communication and many more in a real-world setting 
This is your chance to explore new ideas in a safe and supportive environment. You are encouraged to experiment, and it’s absolutely fine if not everything works out; learning from setbacks is part of the process.
You will build your academic and professional contacts and network extensively during the project, eg, with your fellow students, academic supervisor, and key contacts in the client company.

Consultancy projects will help you to build an incredibly valuable skillset to not only be personally beneficial, but to demonstrate your potential to your chosen employers when competing in student and graduate recruitment processes. 

Potential project themes

Projects cover a wide range of business functions, including: 

Strategy. operations, business planning 
Market research and marketing analytics 
Project management 
Digital transformation in business 
People, culture, and human resources 
Statistics, logistics, forecasting

Why should you choose a consultancy project?

Some degrees include a compulsory project, but when they’re offered as an option, students should consider whether they are willing to represent the university with local, national, or global employers.

Collaborate with peers in a team

In your groups, you will negotiate the scope of the brief (which describes the challenge, aims, and resources available to you) with your client  and diagnose and investigate the organisational issue presented. Then collect and critically analyse data to understand the challenge in detail, and make actionable recommendations; changes, improvements, enhancements.

Demonstrate etiquette and academic ability

In LUMS, we offer students the Consultancy Academy several times a year, which is an extra-curricular set of workshops to help you build skills and practice work-related scenarios, tailored towards the requirements for our projects and relevant to other work experience. In some cases your academics may offer you an alternative option to replace a Company Project. 

Showcase and develop your skills and knowledge

You will develop skills and knowledge in the below areas to put yourself in the position to compete in a global market and work confidently in a consultancy and project lead capacity. As a student at Lancaster University, you will have access to a wide suite of LinkedIn Learning resources to enhance skill development alongside the teaching in your degree

Boost your employability skills

Company projects are the chance to improve your ability to work cross-culturally to understand business etiquette that is appropriate to your client. When working with the employer, in a team you will set milestones and SMART goals to meet your client requirements, and adapt to client feedback. Through undertaking a project, you will build confidence to navigate complex challenges, while collaborating with peers and managing your time

The benefits of a consultancy project

Students who have taken part in consultancy projects describe their experiences. Lancaster academics and businesses who have worked with LUMS describe the benefits of taking part in company projects, and our Projects Managers tell us how they support you.

Transcript for LUMS Company Projects

[Ajay Baines] So, the team here at Lancaster University Management School, we work to source and scope projects across various different degree programmes. We work closely with businesses to really understand some of the issues that they're facing, opportunities for change, looking at opportunities that students can come on board and tackle.

[Shelley Morgan] In our small team, we are two company Projects Managers. We work across the UK, nationally, and we're now expanding globally as well.

[Richard Smith] We decided to collaborate with Lancaster University and the Management School on this project because Lancaster University is one of the top universities in the country so it's a no-brainer really.

[Ben Anderson] Pre-law is a legal service provider based in Lancaster. We offer legal services in employment law, family law and services for small businesses and medium-sized businesses.

[Kerry Tenbey] Lancaster Grand Theatre is the third-oldest theatre outside of London in continuous operation. The project was all about strategy. It was about looking at our USPs and where we fit within the live entertainment market of Lancaster. The students were really motivated, and the insights that they gave us were really valuable.

[Richard Smith] The main purpose of this project was to look into the luxury SUV market. Porsche have two main models, the Cayenne and the Macan, so it was to research our AOI, which is Cumbria and North Lancashire and look at demographics, buying habits.

[Mary Hargreaves] They get a totally different perspective from the students. I think that's the most important thing, and they get often different cultural perspective, and they get a very good robust piece of research which is done.</b>

[Lee Francis] I think every project we've ever done has always shed light on areas of research that are attractive avenues for the company to pursue.

[Ben Anderson] So the student project gave us lots to think about, it gave us some different pathways that we hadn't already considered and also expanded on some ideas that we gave the project and gave us more detailed, imaginative approaches how we could go about growing the business and scaling it.

[Mary Hargreaves] And the students always talk about when you talk to them later in life, they can always remember that project
that they worked on.

[Mahnaz Abbariki] A lot of our students, in their CVs, when they are applying for jobs actually incorporating the experience that they had with these clients, so it's very important for them and helps them with their employability a lot.

[Shivam Tiwari] You get this chance to actually meet, greet and get in the client and the project management sort of feel. I do recommend.

[Han Yu]Take this opportunity and do the best you can because it's not often you have this chance to work with real big companies.

[Richard Smith] Would we be open to doing another student project? I think we would. It's an easy process; it's a smooth process.

[Ben Anderson] Any opportunity that comes up or arises from the University, we always explore it because for the amount of time that we have to put in as an organisation for what you get back, it's absolutely so valuable for us.

[Shelley Morgan] We're really open to conversations with any kind of client who is interested in accessing our Management School students. We really welcome a conversation with you, and we hope that this has given you a really interesting snapshot and flavour of what sorts of things are available through our projects.

Why do employers get involved?

Employers are keen to work with students who bring fresh perspectives and a wide range of opinions and ideas, coming together to tackle and offer recommendations to solve their business problem. Their reason may be: