The ABP Biz Psych Cup: The Ultimate Learning Experience
By Dr Dawn H. Nicholson
After four years of running the ABP Biz Psych Cup, I am always amazed by the quality of the work the student teams create and present in response to the real-world challenges set by our ABP Corporate members. World Youth Skills Day 2025 offers the ideal opportunity to reflect on the competition and what student teams gain from participating.
The Importance of Collaborative Working
The Biz Psych Cup was conceived as a competition for student teams because I am passionate about helping students acquire collaborative working skills.
For employers, group and teamwork are the lifeblood of their organisations and are ubiquitous across numerous countries. Although difficult to be precise, estimates of the percentage of teamwork usage in organisations (Allen & Hecht, 2004) suggest the following approximate rates:
- 45% in Canada
- 50% in Europe
- 30-55% in the United States
- 65% in Great Britain
It is unsurprising, therefore, that organisations attach such importance to teamworking skills.
Notwithstanding, recent CIPD research (Crowley, 2024) found that many UK employers believe young people lack these important workplace skills. Of employers who had recruited someone aged 16-24 in the past 12 months, approximately:
- 28% thought that young people were well-prepared for the world of work.
- 52% felt that young people were not well-prepared.
- 64% thought young people often lacked important social skills in the workplace.
- 24% felt that graduates recruited to their first job lacked required soft/personal skills and competencies, including teamwork.
Separate research suggests employers rate “ability to work in teams” as the most important skill required of college graduates: 62% of employers describe this skill as “very important” (AAC&U, 2021). Yet other findings suggest employers believe graduates lack this key skill. According to SHL research, examining 8,000 US graduates from the 2022/23 and 2023/24 cohorts, graduates rank "lower" in communication, collaboration, strategic and critical thinking and building relationships (Robinson, 2024).
These are all skills that can be built through student group working and that the best-performing student teams in The Biz Psych Cup have excelled at.
Evidence-Based Practice
As Business Psychologists, the foundation of our work is evidence-based practice (EBP). In our field, EBP is about using the best available research evidence, coupled with deep expertise and understanding of the client organisation’s issues, to work with organisations to achieve the outcomes that will create flourishing and productive workplaces.
The student teams participating in the Biz Psych Cup are given the opportunity to apply EBP to pressing business challenges set by our corporate members. This involves the teams systematically searching for, critically appraising, and synthesizing the most relevant research findings to identify what works best for the particular challenge they are looking to solve. The teams also need to demonstrate that they fully understand the challenges faced by the corporate member organisation, that they can identify a solution, and that they understand the challenges of implementing the solution within the particular organisation. Look at any of the posters prepared for the competition and you’ll get an immediate sense of the depth and range of the research the teams undertake in responding to their challenges.
The teams fortunate enough to make the judging final also need to be able to clearly articulate and present their findings to the judging panel and answer questions posed by the judges. It is not a task for the faint-hearted!
Business and Academia: The Need for a Common Language
That final presentation highlights another important skill of the best-performing Biz Psych Cup teams: the ability to speak (and understand) the language of business and bridge the gap between business and academia.
Academics do not always understand the language of business, and business does not understand the language of academia. I have watched senior academics stand in front of businesses and present great research content where the message gets lost. I see business people clapping politely, then hear them privately musing – to themselves or their colleagues – “Exactly how can I apply this to my day job?”
If I take business and organisational psychology as one example, academics live mainly in the world of ‘p-values’, ‘confidence intervals’, and ‘statistical significance’. By contrast, business people live in a world of very different ‘p-values’, i.e. it’s about people, productivity and profitability.
The best Biz Psych Cup teams understand and clearly demonstrate the application of their research. Their solutions are framed in the language of business, that the corporate challengers can easily and quickly absorb.
Mentoring for Skills Building
Last but not least, the Biz Psych Cup teams are mentored throughout the competition by senior ABP members (Certified Principal Business Psychologists and Fellows of the Association) acting as their Pro Coach Angels.
I particularly like this quote from Calum Davey, the executive director of research and best practice at the National Institute of Teaching, who previously said:
“Mentors are the unsung heroes of professional development. . . Effective mentoring promotes a productive, supportive, and open relationship between mentee and mentor, establishes mentee goals, and especially facilitates mentee learning through modelling, reflection, professional development, peer collaboration and networking.”
And it’s a two-way relationship: the Pro Coach Angels have also remarked on how much they themselves learn from the student teams.
The Future is Bright!
To the teams, mentors, judges, challengers – and all who come together to make the Biz Psych Cup happen – I am super grateful for your support. As we approach the 2025-26 competition later this year, we’ll be opening it up to even more student teams, so that they too can enjoy the benefits of participating.
Remember – you have to be in it to win it!
About the Author
Dr Dawn H. Nicholson is Vice Chair of the ABP and Head of University Accreditation, with almost three decades of HR and consulting experience and a PhD in Decision-Making Psychology. A Chartered Psychologist and ABP Fellow, she has led Business Psychology programmes at Kent and Arden universities and remains active in the Business Psychology industry. As Biz Psych Cup Lead, she champions collaboration between academia and business. Passionate about guardianship and growth of the field, Dawn works to raise standards, support emerging talent, and promote the value of Business Psychology. She also enjoys countryside walks with her two lively cocker spaniels.
References
Allen, N. J., & Hecht, T. D. (2004). The “romance of teams”: Toward an understanding of its psychological underpinnings and implications. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77(4), 439–461.
Association of American Colleges & Universities. (AAC&U: 2021). How College Contributes to Workforce Success: Employer Views on What Matters Most.
Crowley, L. (2024) Changing Face of the Youth Labour Market. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Robinson, B. (2024, June). 2024 Graduates Lack Skills In Communication, Collaboration And Critical Thinking, Study Finds. Forbes Magazine