This project aims to develop a strategic level decision support tool, which will be made available in a secure environment to a number of different organisations.It is our observation that many firms both large and small would be interested in sponsoring some form of a student engagement, but are not set up to manage this. There are similar considerations regardless of the form of engagement, whether it is an internship where work is carried out by a singe student within the firm, or whether it is a project where the work is carried out by a team of students working at the University under the academic supervision.Sponsor enterprises need to be clear about what they expect from such engagements, and this project we wish to develop an on-line strategic support tool utilising decision trees to support the establishment of a policy framework. For example, is the objective to showcase corporate social responsibility in action, to spot potential future employees, to help move a stalled project forward, or some combination of these things. Some examples of such frameworks are available. The firms need to identify ways in which they will obtain value from this engagement, to establish procedures for identifying suitable programs, and for defining individual project requirements. In addition to representing the logical decision trees, the use of smart forms that link to flow-on activities should be explored.
