If you’ve been in town over recent days, no doubt you’ve noticed the many Manchester Metropolitan University graduation celebrations taking place. Earlier today, more than a hundred of our BA (Hons) Business and Marketing students crossed the stage of Bridgewater Hall, as the Class of ’25. It’s an exciting and emotional day – for colleagues, students, their family and friends – involving reflection, immense pride, as well as the inevitable apprehension about future graduate prospects.
That’s partly why last October we launched HIVEMINDS, in collaboration with The Chamber, as a community of students and business professionals from diverse sectors across Greater Manchester and beyond. We're further strengthening the BA (Hons) Business and Marketing degree programme identity, with HIVEMINDS set within a business network that provides inspiration and guidance, helping nurture a high-calibre talent pipeline for the regional economy. Yesterday, we held our third HIVEMINDS event, with several industry friends offering their time, encouragement and support to some of our final year students, on ‘Graduation Eve’. Candid reflections, purposeful conversations, and everyone leaving with heightened self-belief and awareness of others’ perspectives. A perfect event, just as we’d hoped for.
As they say though, if you stand still, you’re going backwards. We’re therefore looking forward to the upcoming revalidation of our degree, that will launch in September 2026. Our aim is to produce truly sought-after, career-ready graduates, who will become responsible leaders across sectors in Greater Manchester, into the 2030s. Creating a future-focused degree - academically robust yet industry relevant, attractive to prospective students as well as to their eventual graduate employers - is serious business! Over the last twelve months or more, we’ve been meeting with the breadth of our stakeholders, conducting competitor analyses, and diving deep into all sorts of data. This includes the excellent Chamber-led Local Skills Improvement Plan reports, through to the recently-launched World Economic Forum ‘Future of Jobs Report’. The latter, as perhaps expected, highlights the anticipated growth in demand for technology skills, yet also makes abundantly clear that critical core skills such as analytical thinking, cognitive function, resilience, and ethical leadership will be more in demand than ever.
While it’s practically impossible to predict employer needs in 2030 and beyond, by placing our industry-informed programme at the heart of regional business via HIVEMINDS, we believe our future graduates will be an integral element of our region’s continued competitiveness and success. I’d like to invite you to join our HIVEMINDS LinkedIn community. By doing so, you might join us at future events, engaging with and helping shape the bright, young, enthusiastic minds that form a substantial part of our region’s talent pipeline.