20 PGT (postgraduate taught) students successfully completed the University of Bath’s new Empower Community Challenge scheme.

This six-week work experience initiative paired students with local and national charities to support them with challenges they are currently facing. The students worked alongside their chosen organisations to create project briefs and suggest actions the organisations can implement.

The annual scheme is designed to help students gain vital real-world work experience and develop important skills needed in an increasingly competitive job market.

The Empower Community Challenge is a collaboration between Bath’s Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, Faculty of Science, and Faculty of Engineering & Design.

Empowering change

Following their six weeks of volunteering, students shared their findings at the Celebration Event on Wednesday 18 March 2026.

The event was made up of presentations and networking, while a panel of staff and external partners provided insightful and constructive feedback on the presentations.

The students involved supported the following organisations across a range of projects.

2Wish: Students took part in a poster campaign and helped raise wider awareness of the charity. Outcomes included producing over 100 pieces of marketing material and introducing the charity to the University’s Wellbeing Service. 2Wish supports families and individuals who have suddenly experienced bereavement.

British Heart Foundation: Students worked closely with the charity's Bath shop to promote sustainable fashion and increase footfall. They were hands-on in the shop each week, steaming and tagging clothing, and they delivered weekly themed social media content on TikTok and Instagram. Outcomes included a 23% increase in TikTok post growth, 83% non-follower reach on Instagram, and total sales of £1,204 during the challenge.

Friends of Oleksandriya: Students contacted local gyms and organisations specialising in armed forces recovery. Donations have already been secured, with more expected. The charity appreciated how challenging the task was and how the students approached it. Friends of Oleksandriya is a community empowerment project focused on sourcing gym equipment for a Veterans’ Hub in Ukraine.

Alcohol Change: As part of a year-long campaign aiming for a society free from alcohol harm, students explored marketing regulation and highlighted how widespread alcohol industry advertising is across the UK. The team produced an advert to raise awareness as part of their work.

SWEDA (Somerset & Wessex Eating Disorder Association): Students shared initial ideas such as a 30-hour boardgame event and a pub quiz to mark SWEDA’s 30th birthday. They eventually developed a scavenger hunt centred on body positivity and eating disorder awareness. They worked with several student societies to turn it into a cross-campus competition and were praised for their credibility and ability to pivot quickly when the original idea proved challenging.

Dragonfly Cancer Trust: Students developed a deeper understanding of the charity’s donor base to support future fundraising and donor retention. They analysed datasets to explore UK giving patterns, donation frequency, and engagement levels across age ranges, using Gen AI tools and Python to inform their insights. Dragonfly Cancer Trust supports children and young people facing life-threatening cancer diagnoses.

Speaking at the event, Jenniffer Gearheart-Tang (Co-Founder of Qi Ventures), who was on the panel and provided support for the students throughout the scheme, said:

It was an absolute privilege to serve as a panellist for the Empower programme. I was genuinely impressed by the calibre of the students — especially their creativity, depth of thinking, and the way they collaborated to deliver thoughtful, well-structured solutions to real challenges faced by charities.

What stood out most was not just their ideas, but how thoroughly they considered impact, feasibility, and long-term value. Their pitches were insightful, purposeful, and driven by a real desire to make a difference.

There’s a huge opportunity here: organisations should be actively engaging with these students. They bring fresh perspectives, innovative thinking, and a level of energy that can unlock new ways of tackling current challenges. The solutions are there—we just need to listen.

Programmes like this create truly meaningful, win-win engagements between emerging talent and organisations.

Jenniffer was involved throughout the project, and the students really benefited from their expertise, as well as their feedback.

Su Pirinc, Regional Fundraiser for Gloucester, Avon and Somerset at 2Wish, said:

It was a great opportunity, and I admired the students’ boldness, despite the heaviness of the context behind our charity. We’re really grateful for all the work and the positivity each student brought.

Reliable, enthusiastic and keen to learn — they were a great asset to the team and achieved an excellent result for their challenge.

Amy Childe, Student Projects Officer in the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, said:

It was a brilliant afternoon, listening to all that the students had achieved during their Empower Community Challenge. A key takeaway for me was how well students who did not know each other had worked together to deliver on projects for local charities.

Offering a platform

At the Celebration Event, students also spoke about successes and challenges they faced throughout the campaigns, sharing how they overcame these while reflecting on their experiences.

The main benefits students spoke about were developing their teamwork and collaboration abilities, enhancing their communication skills, and gaining experience in content creation, as well as making new friends and having the opportunity to work with peers they wouldn’t have normally met otherwise.

The challenge is designed to give students the chance to develop a range of transferable skills — such as event planning, problem solving, critical thinking, and presenting — and build their professional networks and experience outside the classroom ahead of graduating.

The Celebration Event was led by Jonny Hodgson (Postgraduate Placements and External Engagement Advisor, Faculty of Science), Victoria Maskell-Thomas (PGT Employability Manager, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences), Jenny Nixon (PGT Employability Officer, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences), and Alice Horncastle (Employability Coordinator, Faculty of Engineering & Design).

We also want to give a big thank you to our panel of Jenniffer Gearheart-Tang, Drake Gearheart and Amy Childe, who provided feedback to the students and offered support throughout the scheme.