The CETYS Business Solutions Model

In a single semester, 429 students at CETYS University’s School of Management and Business worked on 88 short consulting projects for external organisations, supported by 16 faculty members. The programme, called Business Solutions, emerged from a growing desire among educators to bring real-world problems into the classroom, coupled with a lack of formal guidance on how to do it effectively.

The scheme embeds consulting engagements directly into course design, treating industry challenges as assessment tools. Students first learn about their partner organisation’s context, then conduct market, strategic, operational or financial analyses, and finally present a professional proposal to the company’s leadership. This structure, the programme’s director Paulina A. Vargas Larraguível writes, shifts students from seeing the work as an assignment to working as genuine consultants.

Beyond the classroom, the programme relies on institutional scaffolding: existing outreach or external-affairs offices helped identify partners, set expectations and manage confidentiality. A formal project close—documenting outcomes and thanking the organisation—turned one-off collaborations into lasting relationships, with trust built on a professional, ethical process rather than solely on student outputs.

CETYS’s experience, shared in a practitioner guide, offers a template for other business schools seeking to bridge the gap between theory and practice without overburdening faculty or students.

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What Makes Industry-Embedded Courses Succeed

Faculty training: the overlooked enabler

While course designers often focus on finding companies, the CETYS team found that academic training rarely builds the skills needed for industry outreach. Workshops, communities of practice and peer-exchange sessions helped staff learn to manage external stakeholder expectations, translate organisational needs into learning objectives, and support students in unfamiliar contexts. This investment turned a daunting task into a shared academic practice and reduced the risk of misaligned projects.

From assignment to professional identity

A pivotal moment is the first direct contact with the client organisation. When students hear managers describe real constraints, they stop treating the problem as a theoretical exercise and begin making evidence-based, practical recommendations. The final presentation, delivered to a multidisciplinary company panel rather than just academic staff, reinforces that shift—turning an assessment into an authentic professional experience.

Institutional scaffolding builds trust faster than project quality alone

Successful partnerships were those backed by clear university-level frameworks. Using existing engagement structures gave both faculty and external organisations confidence from the first conversation. Agreeing scope, timelines, outputs and confidentiality upfront, and then formally closing each project, signalled that the university valued the relationship—often laying the groundwork for future collaboration regardless of the students’ specific recommendations.

A Faculty Blueprint for Company-Linked Projects

  • Start inside your institution. Talk to your programme coordinator, outreach office or entrepreneurship centre to identify which support mechanisms already exist—CETYS found that coordinating efforts across these units made resources go further.
  • Map projects to competencies. Choose industry partners whose challenges align with specific course learning objectives, and decide early which assessment the project will replace or complement.
  • Build a phased structure. Design the experience around a diagnostic phase (understanding the organisation), an analytical phase (market/strategic/financial analysis), and a proposal phase (presenting to the client).
  • Prepare faculty, not just students. Run workshops or peer-exchange sessions so staff can scope projects realistically, manage partner expectations, and guide students in a professional environment.
  • Use a formal close. Document outcomes, thank the organisation formally and acknowledge its contribution. This step, often overlooked, is what converts one-off projects into lasting partnerships.