Practera

Two weeks ago I walked into this knowing the theory. I'm walking out actually understanding the industry. As part of my MSc at Newcastle University Business School, I had the chance to lead Team Forge - six of us, different backgrounds, different specialisms, same brief — through a live consulting project for Orchestra Data, a Physical AI startup working at the intersection of factory operations and machine intelligence. All powered by Practera's Global Industry Project programme. Our job? Evaluate the sensing technologies that could form the backbone of Orchestra Data's next product — depth cameras, eye trackers, acoustic sensors, tactile arrays, biosensing. The kind of hardware that teaches machines how humans actually work. I came into this having built a startup at 18, run sponsorship pipelines, built Angular web applications, AI models and spent months in an internship. And I still learned something new almost every day of this project. That's the honest version. What I'm proudest of isn't the report. It's the team. 📌 Julie (Liu Jianing) — kept every single communication professional, warm, and on time. Our client never had to chase us once. 📌 Sierra (Zhang Shuoyan) — went deep on depth sensing with the kind of rigour that made the rest of us raise our game. 📌 Xinyu (Wang Xinyu) — brought ideas nobody else was thinking about. Genuinely the most creative thinker in the room. 📌 Changrun (Xie) — pulled apart the competitive landscape and found gaps that became the core of our recommendations. 📌 Celeste (Jingwen Lai) — delivered her section with more technical depth than most professionals would manage in twice the time. To Nemo Shi and the Orchestra Data team — thank you for trusting a group of students with a real brief and giving us genuine feedback rather than polite encouragement. That made all the difference. To the Newcastle University Careers Team — and especially Shirin Nedumannil, who genuinely pushed me to sign up for this when I was on the fence about it — thank you. You were right. And to Practera — the structure you build around these projects turns what could be a box-ticking exercise into something that actually stretches you. If you're an MSc student wondering whether to take on something like this alongside your dissertation — just do it. I'm currently finishing my MSc in Business Analytics here at Newcastle this September and actively looking for opportunities in analytics, AI, marketing and strategy from September 2026. If something comes to mind, my inbox is open 🙂 #NewcastleUniversity #Practera #PhysicalAI #BusinessAnalytics #StudentConsultant #Manufacturing #MachineLearning #RealWorldLearning #NewcastleUniversity #MSc #GraduateJobs #AI

As we approach this year’s Graduate Futures Institute conference, a year has passed since Beau Leese, Louise Moran and I launched Practera’s Horizons programme at the AGCAS 2025 Conference. Horizons provides a 1st experiential learning of work with authentic industry clients to students from under-represented groups who are at risk of progression into graduate employment. We've completed 5 cohorts with 200+ students since launch. As Chair of Horizons Governance, I’ve had the privilege of watching those cohorts succeed. So what have we learned? And what does the impact look like? 🔭 Identify the students you want to help: At our recent Horizons Community of Practice, we had a rich discussion about how to engage students. Whether you use data about cohorts at risk of progression, or graduate outcomes data, a targeted approach that states the benefits and outcomes directly to students is most effective to engage participants. 🚧 Address barriers by design: At last year's Conference, Charlotte Brown CPsychol and Lindsay Halliday reflected on the complex intersecting barriers faced by students from under-represented groups. The mostly asynchronous model of Horizons’ virtual 3 week projects addresses a lot of those barriers by making it easier to engage around other commitments. We’ve also learned that timing cohorts to avoid teaching has effectively reduced stress points. ✅ Students benefit: The increases in career readiness and skill development are really clear and exciting, and are all above target programme benchmarks: ●      89% completion rate ●      87% feel they've gained relevant work experience ●      92% likeliness to use the experience as evidence in future opportunities ●      81% are more aware of their next career steps ●      84% developed their target transferable skillset 📢 Client feedback: We've been energised by the quality and range of project clients: SMEs, Start-Ups, NGOs & Charities. 80% of project reports were rated as High or Outstanding Quality which is incredible in the context of this being a first experiential learning of the workplace for our students, all working in groups with students from other HEIs. A CEO from an international education NGO said “I’m thoroughly impressed….It’s clear you’ve not only listened but have masterfully incorporated the core ideas into a solid actionable pyramid of progress.” A digital marketing founder said “There are a number of actions we will take based on this work.” This is exactly what Horizons was designed to do: to create opportunities for students to learn through developing actionable outcomes for authentic industry partners. 🤝 Diverse partners: We've been fortunate to partner with universities across the UK and across all mission groups in the last year. We've learned a lot from your participation, your approaches to engagement and how you have integrated Horizons into other initiatives. Thank you all! Chat to Jane Hallett or myself if you'd like to learn more!

The shortlist for the upcoming Graduate Futures awards is now live! Supported by The Access Group, Practera, Symplicity, Gradconsult and Gradcore. We are delighted to announce this year's shortlist for the newly rebranded #GRAFTAs. We were overwhelmed with the entries we had in both volume and quality. With over 200 entries, this year's submissions were truly special, everyone at Graduate Futures Institute would like to thank everyone for putting in so much hard work on these, congratulations to the shortlisted, we'll see you in Nottingham this July for the ceremony! To see the full shortlist click here: https://lnkd.in/eV-u8JBW To book a ticket for the GRAFTAs ceremony and our Annual Conference click here: https://lnkd.in/e3Chs_Ty #GRAFTAs #ImagineIf #Employability #Careers #HigherEducation

As we prepare for our next WE Accelerate program with the University of Waterloo, we’re reflecting on the success of our last cohort! Are you a Canada-based organisation, startup, or charity curious about how a team of Waterloo students can bring fresh insights and help drive your organization forward? Hear directly from past participants as they share their experiences and why you should get involved!

Over the last two weeks I completed a professional business project consulting for Luca Jakab and ANTIDOTE Changemakers - a purpose-led strategy studio that equips changemakers with ethical strategy, accessible tools and collaborative learning spaces. During the project, my role included researching competitor pricing strategies and identifying benchmarks for ANTIDOTE. Through teamwork, researching and the assistance of generative AI, I was able to produce a detailed report for Luca. Luca gave excellent feedback, enabling the team to make improvements and learn more about consulting. Overall, I learnt how to turn hours of market research and analysis into a consice, informative piece of work for my client. In the future, I hope to apply the skills obtained when participating in other consulting and research projects. Thank you so much, Luca Jakab, Practera and Durham University for this incredible experience which has enabled me to colloborate with other Durham University students in a real world business situation. #Practera #DurhamUniversity