We are always pleased to talk to businesses about the range of business support, advice and expertise that the Leisure Department team can offer. This could be anything, from providing a work-placement student to a student consultancy project, management training or a Knowledge Transfer Partnership to grow your business.
The Leisure Department delivers Tourism, Event and Venue, International Hospitality and Sport Management degree programmes at the University and have a team with a breadth of expertise ready to provide consultancy and training solutions for your business. The teaching team have specialist knowledge having all worked in industry; many have held senior management roles and some have owned their own businesses. In addition to our core team we can call upon experienced innovation consultants, students and graduates.
The combined expertise and specialist knowledge team ensures we can deliver high quality consultancy and research. We can access key research documents such as MINTEL, KEYNOTE, SOCIAL TRENDS to support businesses in their market intelligence. Our research capacity encompasses disciplines within the leisure industries and we have contributed to the business planning, marketing strategy and development of businesses through our consultancy work. Recent projects include:
Research into Ticket Buying Behaviour for The Ticket Factory (part of The NEC Group) to help the business understand how to increase its market share
A feasibility study for The Holker Group (based in Cumbria) to evaluate a major new tourism development in southern Lakeland
A feasibility study for St Bartholomew’s Church in Penn, Wolverhampton, to evaluate the development of a mulit-purpose Events Centre
Employability is really important to us – we recognise that students need both a qualification and relevant experience, so in their first and second years students undertake 100 hours of work placement. In their final year students deliver live consultancy projects for businesses. If you would like to take advantage of these resources then we can help with the recruitment and selection of students to help your business.
In recent years we have organised a number of events, both on campus and off-campus. We really value opportunities for students’ work-experience, and many of the events we plan involve students in their delivery. In recent years we have delivered careers fairs, the University’s International Festival, the Annual Forum for The Association for Events Management Education and The Student Conference for The Council for Hospitality Management Education. With four campuses, two theatre venues, a dedicated conferencing department and knowledge of the latest trends in events management, we can plan and deliver the most complicated and innovative of events both on and off campus.
Knowledge Transfer is a great way to work with the Leisure department. It involves you recruiting a graduate who works in your business. This student is supported by our staff who provide academic supervision, giving the business access to all the research and resources at the University.
There are 2 subsidised projects available:
KTP - A national programme available to large companies and SME's.
KEEN- A West Midlands based programme for SME's and third sector organisations.
For further details please contact Jules Greaves, School Sales and Business Development Representative. Jules can also provide further information about paid student placements.
From training courses to academic qualifications, we are always happy to discuss individual and organisational requirements for professional development in the leisure sector for both paid staff and volunteers, and can offer accreditation and/or certificates of attendance. Every year we deliver BII (British Institute of Innkeepers training to students, we can offer these qualifications to businesses, and we can always tailor-make a training solution to meet your needs. We can also offer individual specialist modules from our current course portfolio.
For staff seeking to grow their expertise and develop their career we offer postgraduate qualifications, from a PGCert to a PhD. Examples of PhD topics in the Leisure department include:
