working with you...Talent, skills and innovation Business Services at Nottingham Trent University

Discover more ways to benefit your businessWelcome to one of the UK’s leading commercially focused universities. You mightalready be familiar with Nottingham Trent University in some way, but you may notknow how we can help take your organisation to the next level.

Whether you are looking for talented new people, want todevelop your current staff or benefit from the latestresearch, our services are cost-effective, easy to access andcome with support from our dedicated team.

We are proud to team up with organisations large andsmall, including well known names such as Boots, RollsRoyce, Barclays, Experian, Faithful+Gould and Pork Farms.We’ve helped many small and medium businesses throughspecific programmes designed to help them to grow anddevelop. Over £5 million of NTU and European RegionalDevelopment (ERDF) funding over the past two years hasenabled us to offer subsidised placements, consultancy andfree workshops and events.

In this brochure you can find out more about accessingtalent, developing skills and support for innovation.Don’t forget, you can also contact our team at any time:

Business Services

Tel: +44 (0)115 848 8899 Email: workingwithyou@ntu.ac.uk

www.ntu.ac.uk/business

talent

Ways to get NTU talent into your organisation…• Graduate recruitment: fixed-term or permanent employees.

• Student placements: from a few weeks up to 12 months. Placements are an excellent way to benefit from fixed-term support or can be usedas extended ‘interviews’.

• Internships: these fixed-term placements for students and graduates are ideal for accessing specialist talent for a specific piece of work orproject.

• Academic-led project: our students work with one of our academic experts to help solve a particular business challenge. Recent projects haveranged from enhancing companies social media marketing activity to help with the re-formulation and taste-testing of new coffee flavours.

NTU has more than 26,000 students – with over 8,000 graduating every

year – who are developing the latest skills and knowledge in a diverse

range of fields. We have a strong national and international reputation

for producing graduates who are full of ambition and have the practical

skills employers desire.

So how can you make sure you access the right people, whether you are

looking for full-time employees or placement students? Our specialist

team will work closely with you to understand your needs, carefully

matching them with students on relevant courses, ensuring the perfect

fit. They can also give you direct access to our talent pool via our online

vacancy system and through recruitment fairs.

The future of any organisation depends on the ability to recruit skilled, talented and ambitiouspeople. We make recruitment easy and cost-effective by giving you a pipeline to work-readystudents and graduates.

access skilled, work-ready students and graduates

working with… Acorn Conceptual Textiles

Established in 1996, Acorn Conceptual Textiles is a small yet verysuccessful textile studio based in Nottingham. Working in thefast-paced world of fashion, they need a constant stream of freshideas and cutting-edge knowledge. After trying other universities,the company turned to NTU to offer year-long placements tostudents.

With its highly reputable knitwear course, the University proved anattractive option for student talent. For more than a decade now,Acorn has taken on two or three students a year on 12-monthplacements. The students are able to develop their practical andcommercial skills, while bringing new ideas to the firm’s projects.They also get the chance to meet clients and even travel tointernational trade shows.

Acorn works closely with the course at NTU. Designers come topresent their company and issue design challenges. Those who

are interested in a placement are carefully assessed for theirsuitability. Some students go on to full-time employment withthe company.

“Working with NTU over the past decade has been great for us. We’ve proven that youdon’t have to be a big company to offer placements – there’s been a clear benefit to us andthe students. It’s definitely a worthwhile venture.”

Rob Weldon, Director, Acorn Conceptual Textiles

Benefits and outcomes

• Acorn benefits from working with some of the UK’s best

students with innovative ideas and contemporary skills.

• The company helps to develop the next generation of talented

designers.

• Year-long placements give the students chance to settle in and

for Acorn to better assess their potential for graduate positions.

• Students have gone onto employment all over the world,

creating a vital global network that has opened up new business

opportunities.

skills

develop your people through bespoke training

Short coursesOur portfolio of short courses are a flexible way to build skills

development around a career and other commitments. Many of

our courses are targeted at continuing professional development

for specific industries and sectors. We can also create bespoke

short training courses for your organisation.

Short courses are ideal for people who want to:

• develop knowledge in a particular discipline;

• refresh their knowledge;

• review their career; and

• develop specialist skills to support other studies.

At NTU, we are renowned for creating flexible, tailored, vocationally

focused courses for a wide range of industries and professions. We will

work closely with you to understand your needs and team you with

academics who are experts in your sector and who have a proven track

record of success.

We work with organisations across the world to provide:

• in-company training;

• professional or practice-based career development;

• bespoke undergraduate, postgraduate or professional qualifications;

• coaching;

• short courses;

• workshops and conferences;

• accreditation for your current in-house training; and

• executive-level development.

By investing in your employees’ skills and career development, you can help to improveproductivity, encourage innovative thinking and bolster retention.

working with… TDX Group

TDX Group specialises in data, technology and advice to helpcompanies recover debt. Their director of HR wanted to ensureher talented yet relatively inexperienced team had the skills andknowledge to increase their capability and develop professionally.

Three of the team have joined our Certificate in HR Practicecourse, which is governed by the Chartered Institute of Personnel& Development (CIPD), with one employee also completing thediploma.

The certificate course is delivered flexibly over two days a monthfor nine months and brings together individuals fromorganisations all over the world. It is highly practical and helpsstudents understand the models and latest thinking thatunderpin HR and its function within an organisation’s strategy.

“What I’ve found about NTU and the BusinessSchool is that they totally understand commercialclients, making sure their courses andqualifications really help and add value. They fullyengage with the business community to give uswhat we need. That’s a real differentiator.”

HR Director, TDX Group

Benefits and outcomes

• Gives HR practitioners the core skills and theoretical knowledge

to better understand HR and ‘talk the language of business’ with

their managers.

• The course is governed by the CIPD, giving students a

professionally recognised qualification.

• Students learn from experienced tutors with HR backgrounds

• They also benefit from learning alongside individuals from

different types of organisations.

• Students use practical examples from their own workplace.

innovation

research, consultancy and funding to drive your business

Solving challenges through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)What challenges would you love to address in your organisation? Whether it’s better products processes or systems, many companies simply

don’t have the time, money or resources to address these fundamental issues.

Government-funded KTPs are designed to help UK organisations of all sizes by introducing a skilled graduate (supported by an NTU academic

expert) into your company who has the specific skills to address a particular issue. Get in touch with our Business Services team to find out more.

We can help you with specially designed projects, providing a cost-

efficient way for businesses and public sector organisations to access

cutting-edge research and development, as well as advanced technology

and technical facilities.

We can also help you access funding so support innovation. Of course,

innovation is not limited to technology. We can help you develop

innovative products or designs, commercialise your ideas, discover new

ways of working, or rethink the services you offer your customers.

Our research is globally recognised for its academic rigour and practical relevance. We helporganisations of all sizes develop products and ways of working that boost profitability, efficiencyand innovation.

working with… ESP Technology

NTU’s Innovations in Surfaces, Materials and Related Technology

(iSMART) uses our academic expertise to work with small and medium

biomedical companies to help them develop the cutting-edge materials

and devices of the future.

ESP Technology is a small firm which aims to improve kidney dialysis

treatment through special self-sealing vascular grafts. The material it

has developed has a wide range of innovative healthcare and industrial

applications.

The company’s initial focus has been to create a special self-sealing

graft for patients who need dialysis. Whereas traditional needles leave a

hole in the arm, which can lead to serious complications, this innovative

material halts bleeding quickly and reduces the need for compression

(which can lead to thrombosis).

A study identified that for the product to become successful it needed to

also be antimicrobial to prevent infections, such as MRSA. ESP doesn’t

have antimicrobial testing facilities, so it teamed up with iSMART.

Together we were able to produce and test different antimicrobial

materials to find the optimum one that could be combined with the

self-sealing graft.

“We chose to work with NTU because of theteam’s expertise across a broad range of subjectareas. We were impressed by the growingcommunity of biomedical and science businessesin Nottingham and have already taken steps toexpand our footprint.”

Ruth Burns, CEO, ESP Technology

Benefits and outcomes

• ESP was able to develop its novel products by tapping into

world-class expertise.

• The R&D was paid for by University and European funding,

saving the company money.

• iSMART helped ESP win an Innovate UK grant to help bring

products to market.

• The products will benefit patients in terms of safety and time.

• The technology has many other healthcare and industrial

applications.

• The global haemodialysis market is worth £150m a year.

• We have worked with over 6,000 companies in the private, public and third sectors, on a nationaland international level.

• Through our current ERDF funded programmes we have engaged with over 1,000 small and mediumorganisations.

• We have a proud heritage of offering vocationally driven courses since 1843. Around 150 of ourprogrammes are formally accredited or recognised by a professional, statutory or regulatory body.*

• We are sixth among UK universities for the number of students taking year-long work placements.(HESA 2012-13).

• In the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF2014), 55% of our research was internationallyrecognised.

• We are among the top 25% of UK universities for investment in facilities, many of which areavailable to business.

• We have strong relationships with business organisations in the East Midlands. We are patrons ofthe East Midlands Chamber of Commerce and work closely with the IoD, whose regional offices areat NTU, the CBI and Federation of Small Businesses.

A rich heritage and track record of success

*This includes fully accredited, recognised and listed courses.

Talk to our friendly, dedicated Business Services team today,and we’ll help you get the best out of our talent, expertise,research and facilities.

Tel: +44 (0)115 848 8899 Email: workingwithyou@ntu.ac.uk

www.ntu.ac.uk/business

Ready to support your organisation

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