It may not be feasible always within the confines of a three or four-year degree programme curriculum to offer detailed and lengthy work-experience opportunities to students. Moreover, where work-experience opportunities are offered, they are less often linked with the skills imparted by research methods teaching. Students may be ill-equipped to recognise the applicability of their learning in unfamiliar environs. This paper reports on the progress of a Higher Education Academy (UK) funded project where students were set briefs on current research problems by ten distinct but relevant employer organisations in the field. Students were guided in applying methods learned in their research methods course to solve research problems appropriately and encouraged to use initiative in the field, often with surprising and encouraging results.
