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Â鶹Íø has unveiled a major project developed in conjunction with the John Lewis Partnership for students completing the Explore phase of its sector-leading Future Skills programme.

As part of a live brief – the largest of its kind to be launched at the University with an industry partner – more than 600 undergraduates have been tasked with coming up with creative business solutions for the leading retail brand. The challenge involves students from the University's Faculty of Business and Social Sciences and Faculty of Engineering, Computing and the Environment applying their critical thinking to support the retailer's nationwide supermarket chain, Waitrose & Partners.

Streamlining how data is collected from Waitrose's suppliers for quality assurance purposes forms a key part of the project. Students are devising a system to make it easier for the brand to capture and interpret data from its extensive list of suppliers, ranging from small regional producers such as farmers, bakeries and fresh fruit and vegetable growers, to larger nationwide outlets. Those completing the second element of the brief are developing a model that uses historical data to help the supermarket anticipate and respond to changes affecting its suppliers.

Each course group is now tailoring its response to students' individual subject specialisms. Marketing and advertising students are shaping a business-to-business strategic marketing communications plan that Waitrose will be able to use to encourage its suppliers to adopt appropriate use of artificial intelligence to support data insight. Computer science, cybersecurity, digital media technology, geography and geology students, meanwhile, are developing approaches to better understand and respond to shifts in soil health, crop cycles and weather patterns, which they will present to representatives from the retail giant. Field trips to the Waitrose farm in Hampshire are also taking place as part of this activity. Elsewhere, economics students will also have the opportunity to hone their skills at a mock assessment centre that replicates those delivered for John Lewis Partnership placement and graduate schemes.

Speaking at a special event to launch the live brief, John Lewis Partnership Quality Technologist Hannah Wenlock emphasised how working with students would bring fresh perspectives to the business, helping drive innovation. "Harnessing students' creativity and problem-solving skills will mean we can tap into a fresh point of view to help us respond to some of the real-world challenges we face as a business," she said. "The food industry is moving at a phenomenal pace, with new technologies making a significant impact. Involving students from multidisciplinary backgrounds in our work will enable us to view the way we operate through a different lens, opening doors to alternative opportunities and solutions."

Business management student Deenesh Santheeswaran said participating in the live brief would enable him to apply skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving in a real-world context. "The experience of working on the live brief will not only deepen my understanding of the retail sector but also give me extra confidence to put the Future Skills I'm acquiring during my degree into practice when I graduate," he said.

The University's Interim Associate Director of Careers and Employability Olivia Trodden, who was instrumental in overseeing the launch of the John Lewis Partnership opportunity, said the extra dimension of industry involvement had enormous benefits for students' learning. "Bringing businesses into the University so we can support them with a particular challenge enables our students to develop their Future Skills in a real-time industry setting," she said. "They will not only come up with potential solutions for the business, but also challenge the business to think and act differently to resolve those problems."

Widely respected for championing the vital importance of skills for innovation in driving a thriving economy, Â鶹Íø has transformed its teaching by embedding Future Skills as a key part of every undergraduate course across all subject areas. The programme is informed by research conducted in conjunction with YouGov, which has surveyed a range of leading businesses, including the John Lewis Partnership, on the core skills they need for long-term economic success. By the time they complete the programme, students will have acquired nine key graduate attributes, including creative problem solving, digital competency, adaptability, being enterprising, having a questioning mindset, empathy, collaboration, resilience and self-awareness.

All second-year undergraduates at the University are now completing the Explore phase of Future Skills, following its roll out at the start of the academic year. This part of the three-year programme, which they complete alongside their subject-specific learning, provides students with a variety of industry-related opportunities, boosted by the University's strong links with a range of big name employers.

• Find out more about how Â鶹Íø is leading the way in the United Kingdom through its Future Skills programme.