Over 500 first-year students from Leeds Trinity University responded to employability, sustainability and community-related challenges set by Leeds City Council, Bradford 2025, Diocese of Leeds and Ahead Partnership as part of the University’s Professional Challenge 2024.

The Professional Challenge, an initiative now in its third year, provides first-year students with the opportunity to develop key employability skills in communication, team working and problem solving while working to tackle social justice issues. It also offers students a chance to demonstrate their skills, knowledge and enterprise to established organisations and employers in the local area.

Inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, this year’s challenges asked students to produce ideas on increasing teenagers’ engagement with a survey on local parks, recruiting volunteers, widening the delivery of ‘green’ skills and education, and finding a sustainable use for a vacant plot of land in Ilkley.

Working in groups, participants had two weeks to develop their solutions, before presenting them to local employers and their peers at the University’s Main Campus in Horsforth.

Among the stand-out projects were proposals to partner with schools to give pupils an opportunity to directly influence facilities in parks and provide ex-offenders with a chance to demonstrate and improve their skills through volunteering. Ideas to develop a green skills app for young people featuring a range of educational courses and to create a community garden featuring flower beds and benches to encourage social use were also well-received.

The projects were awarded prizes for ‘Most Innovative Challenge Solution’, as chosen by the challenge-setters in attendance.

Chris Megginson, Parks Technical Support Officer at Leeds City Council, said: “It’s fantastic to take part in this initiative and have a diverse range of input on the subject. There were many people in the room all with different ideas, and it’s brilliant to open it up to a new discussion forum. I was very impressed with the proposals and the fantastic work that went into them.”

Suzie Bell, Project Manager at Ahead Partnership, said: “It’s important for us to be involved with these initiatives as they provide students with insights into the world of work. The challenge we set for the students is the type of problem Ahead Partnership must answer by innovating, using critical thinking and working towards a common goal. It’s key that students are prepared for that aspect of professional life.”

Professor Catherine O’Connor, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Experience at Leeds Trinity University, said: We are a career-led University so it’s essential our students can connect their learning to the real world from day one of their studies and this Professional Challenge project lets them do just that. The project helps students to work with outside organisations and helps them to apply their learning to real world issues and problems where they focus on solutions.”