Podcast: Groupwork, management apprenticeships, UKVI

Gareth Neighbour · 27 Mar 2026

Group work is really important! The issue is not groupwork in itself, but how the groupwork and the assessment are designed. The pedagogy should be well thought through. The individual’s contributions to the group work should be the focus. Well-run modules will have effective tutor oversight, ensuring a balanced mix of contributions. Group work isn’t, in my experience, cheaper to deliver and indeed provides mitigation against the risk of GenAI. In Engineering, it is a critical part of the learning outcomes needed for professional competence. There may be bad experiences in the sector, but one of the most successful and long-running modules in my own institution is ‘Team Engineering’. Remember, Together Everyone Achieves More – TEAM! The soft skills are more important in today’s educational landscape than ever, encouraging more interaction and promoting better mental health (rather than students being isolated and stuck on social media, for example). The debate really shows poor understanding by the politicians, challenges group work, and, indeed, extrapolation of the argument would lead to perverse assessment strategies.