Employing industry engagement to empower professionally equipped students

Students are debating excitedly about inflationary uncertainty with professionals responsible for managing billions of dollars. This is the class experience when TSBE students engage with industry. Lecture rooms are transformed into global conferences and networking opportunities. And, was as easy as offering Vodafone venues as “live sites” for professional summits. Industry engagement takes many forms: internships, industry tours, guest speakers and project-based learning (Burns & Chopra, 2016). TSBE activities focus on guest speakers, video interviews, industry case-studies and internships. The latest initiatives add further richness to the experience. Students participate alongside professionals in conferences on the topics critical to their future careers. The benefits providing students with real-world experiences are undebatable. They are motivated to pursue deep and practical knowledge, understand their future roles, and meeting the people who will be essential to successful careers. “Industry engagement not only enhances learning for students but it also provides a vision about their future career” (Burns & Chopra, 2016). Unfortunately, current activities are piecemeal and don’t target specific objectives. Students receive mixed benefits from existing activities. For example, students attending the 2022 CFA challenge received 2023 interview invitations. However, there’s potential to build more comprehensive engagement structures. Papadopoulos et al. (2011) evaluate industry-relevant learning. They present frameworks to incorporate engagement into educational-pathways and navigating potential impediments. My immediate plan is to review this literature, combine insights with reflection on current activities, and produce a targeted, integrated approach. The resulting recommendations has significant potential for inter-disciplinary extension and create opportunities across the University.