Realism and employer engagement in a work-related mathematics group project

A new final year module was developed in 2012 as part of the Keele undergraduate mathematics degree employability strand. This aimed to develop skills including problem-solving, group working, communication skills and reflection, which are valuable in employment but not necessarily developed by traditional mathematics teaching. This article reports on the development of the module and focuses on a group project that attempted to expose students to a realistic project task, first by giving access to a real data source, and later by involvement of industrial collaborators. The involvement of an industrial ‘domain expert’ was found to be useful, while having students complete an unstructured group project based on real data is thought to be a valuable learning experience, despite mixed student feedback.