What are industry/community-based projects?
External partners are organisations outside the university. These may be businesses or other organisations such as charities (service-based learning). Working on industry or community-based projects with these organisations give learners the experience of real-life projects in work environment.
There are several types of activity involving an external partner:
- Industry-based projects/project-based learning (the focus of this article): Learners undertake a project on behalf of an external partner. This may include working on the partner’s premises or working on the project at the university and meeting with the ‘client’ remotely. Keogh et al. (2025) outlines an online museum-based learning project carried remotely giving successive cohorts of students an opportunity to work on the Burke Museum Cataloguing Project. Other examples may include developing a software application or marketing campaign for a company.
- Authentic project assessments: Learners are given projects which have been created by partners in order to mimic real-world projects. In this case, teaching staff take on the role of external partners. This may involve small projects from other departments within the university.
- Skills development/portfolio building: Learners undertake a range of activities on the external partner’s premises gathering evidence of their skills and knowledge. For example, a PGCE student teaching a class at a local primary school or a student nurse working on a hospital ward under supervision.
- Work experience: Learners take time out of their study, usually between years 2 and 3 to undertake work experience. This is often a paid job, and the learner will be an employee undertaking normal duties alongside other staff or working on a specific project. This may be overseas if the learner is also studying a language module.
Why use external partners?
Giving learners the opportunity to work with external partners as several benefits:
- Industry-based projects enable learners to put their skills and knowledge into practice in a supportive environment.
- Learners undertake project work in a real environment, meeting and working with clients, working to a brief and producing industry-standard deliverables. They also allow them to develop business related skills such as interviewing, gaining ethics approval and negotiating skills.
- Learners are more motivated as they are working on real projects with real outcomes.
- Learners have skills and example projects which will enhance their CV make them more employable.
- Often the development of the project is voluntary and therefore benefits organisations who could otherwise not afford to carry out the project. This is particularly helpful for charities and small businesses without large financial investment.
Tool / Software option
Industry projects may require specialist equipment which may be provided by the university or by the partner organisation. For assessment purposes, the university has a number of applications to support this depending upon the assessment mechanism.
- Report-based assessment can be submitted through Blackboard which supports multiple component submissions, e.g. report documents, videos of project outputs, presentation slides, etc.
- If working as a group, peer assessment is also possible using FeedbackFruits. This also has self-evaluation and skill review options.
- Currently PebblePad is used for portfolio development, however this is under review.
Practical tips and considerations
- With large cohorts of learners, it may be difficult to find enough projects for everyone. Group projects may be more appropriate to give learners further opportunities to develop team-working skills as well as working with a client.
- Consider how this type of learning is to be assessed, a combination of observation, project documentation, portfolio development, peer review and self-reflection activities can be used in conjunction with assessment from external organisations and ultimate success of the project.
- A common issue is that learners feel they weren’t adequately prepared in class before embarking on a placement or industry-based project (Jackson, 2015). Although it is rarely possible to prepare every learner for every scenario when working with external organisations or in a work placement, mentoring should be available from either university staff, partner staff or both to ensure a good working relationship.
Tips for accessibility and inclusion
- Ensure that the simulation brief is clear and given out in advance of the activity to ensure everyone has an opportunity to think about the activity and make any necessary preparations.
- Introduce the learners to their external partners and ensure that the partnership is monitored so support can be put in place if there are problems.
- Establish mechanisms for feedback from both the partners and the tutors to ensure they learner is kept informed of progress.
Further information
How-to guides
Resources
Case study
References
- JACKSON, D. (2015). ‘Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and best practice’. Studies in Higher Education [Online], 402. 350–367 Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.842221 [Accessed 25/02/2026].
- KEOGH, L., GIFFNEY, A., CULBERTSON, M. & CRAMER, L. (2025). ‘Museum-Based Learning for Online Collections Students: Is It Possible?’. Museum worlds [Online], 131. 194–201 Available at: https://www-berghahnjournals-com.ezphost.dur.ac.uk/view/journals/museum-worlds/13/1/armw130119.xml [Accessed 25/02/2025].