A valuable insight into a homecare business • Caremark Kirklees

Students at Huddersfield University have been giving a valuable insight into the day-to-day running of a business as a result of a partnership with Caremark Kirklees.

Six students undertaking a Masters’ Degree in Business spent time at the offices of Caremark Kirklees, which has its head office at Armitage Bridge.

As part of their consultancy project, they got to work alongside Caremark Kirklees’ owners Fiona and Duncan Smith to see how a busy business like theirs operates.

Caremark Kirklees was recently named as one of the top 20 recommended companies in the Yorkshire and Humber region, based on customers reviews, and employs 100 people.

Dr Fiona Cheetham, Huddersfield University Business School Module Leader for the project, said: “It has been so beneficial for our students to be able to work with Fiona and Duncan on a live project such as this. It has given them the opportunity to appreciate the complexity of real-world business issues and to apply their academic knowledge to produce workable solutions.”

Dr Gemma Bend, the University’s Academic Supervisor for the project, added: “The students learned about the core challenges faced by Caremark on a practical level and have come to appreciate the multiple complex factors which affect the running of a business in the care sector.

“This knowledge has made them think more innovatively about how these challenges can be addressed with limited resources – something they will take with them in their future career roles.

“They have also learned valuable lessons about consultancy skills, particularly the importance of clear communications and the need to be agile in changing project plans to meet the needs of the client and to produce some useful outputs.”

Caremark Kirklees Managing Director Duncan Smith said: “We were delighted to be able to host the students and give them an insight into how our business works.

“As a Huddersfield-based company, we are always happy to give something back to the community which has been so supportive of us since we began providing homecare in 2015, and hopefully this is just the start of a longer-term partnership with the university.”