Grads4Nottm is back, celebrating 10 years of student and graduate talent supporting businesses in the region
Grads4Nottm is the NTU-exclusive two-week work experience programme promoting Nottingham as a destination for graduate employment.
Over its 10 year history the scheme has connected 180 local businesses with over 850 students and graduates. Longstanding supporters of Grads4Nottm include Boots, Innovation Nottinghamshire, UNiDAYS, Nottingham Contemporary and a number of NHS functions.
"Brilliantly committed group of students who took feedback on board. From a range of courses and a complex brief which received a lot of feedback but they took it all in their stride.”
(Megan Dawes, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, 2022)
"Both Grads4Nottm teams produced valuable and professional work that we can happily put our name to and have already published."
(Innovation Nottinghamshire, 2023)
The initiative aims to:
- promote Nottingham as a great place to live and work;
- make students aware of the types of businesses and graduate jobs available;
- help students access the growing and diverse small medium enterprise (SME) network, recognised as the largest recruiter of graduate talent in the region;
- provide local businesses with a cost-effective way to sample new talent and create a candidate pipeline for graduate opportunities.
Our three students were absolutely fab. Having been our first year with G4N we didn't know what to expect, but were really impressed with their enthusiasm, presentation skills and quality of work. Definitely would be happy to employ any of our three!
Chloe George, Forsyth Barnes, 2022
Local businesses are invited to submit innovative. real-life challenges which students and graduates will work in groups (of up to 5) to solve during the summer.
Employers must host their group for the duration of the project, before everyone is brought back together for a showcase event.
Student/graduate participants will receive a £200 bursary on completion of the project, paid by NTU.
Building talent pipelines:
Grads4Nottm is a great short-term resource solution, that many businesses have used to build a talent pipeline for their early careers recruitment needs. Highlights from previous editions include:
- Across all years, many employers choosing to extend their projects into further work experience and paid roles, in order to retain the ideas, skills and resource of their Grads4Nottm group.
- In 2022, 11 Grads4Nottm employers went on to submit roles for the Graduate Internship Scheme, benefitting from 8 fully-funded, additional weeks of insight and hands-on experience from NTU graduates.
This year we are excited to offer the opportunity for organisations to extend their Grads4Nottm experience. Funding is available via UKSPF for eligible businesses. Further details about this will be available in due course.
Key dates:
| Friday 8 March 2024 | Deadline for employer challenge submissions | Get involved below. |
| March – May 2024 | Student applications and challenge matching | Employer challenges are advertised anonymously to students to remove brand bias. NTU Employability Team match students to employer challenges. |
| TBC | Employer Kick-Off Event | Presentation and networking opportunity for participating employers to outline the upcoming weeks and answer any questions. |
| Monday 3 June 2024 (AM) | Launch Event | Employers and students meet for the first time for briefing and introduction presentation. |
| Monday 3 June (PM) – Thursday 13 June 2024 | Challenge Weeks | Employer to host student group whilst they undertake project. |
| Friday 14 June 2024 | Showcase and Celebration Event | Participants present their findings back to their employer, followed by lunch and networking. |
| June 2024 onwards | Opportunity for work experience extension | Eligible businesses can extend their Grads4Nottm experience, supported by UKSPF funding. |
Organisations can host multiple groups should you have unique challenges for them to complete and capacity to host all participants.
Get involved:
The window to get involved in this project is now closed. Contact the team to discuss the future opportunities, via Grads4Nottm@ntu.ac.uk.
