Academy · Mentoring

Leading student teams on real work

LangOptima is a partner organization in the University of Warwick’s TeaMWork programme, one of the student programs we currently take part in. We put a real challenge in front of a multidisciplinary team of students from Warwick and partner universities around the world, then mentor them through it for four weeks, the way we would lead a project team in industry.

4 weeks
The length of each TeaMWork project cycle
6–8 students
A multidisciplinary team, drawn from several universities
Global & online
Warwick with partner universities, across time zones

Programme partners

The programme

What TeaMWork is

TeaMWork is the University of Warwick’s online international experience programme. It connects organizations with multidisciplinary teams of students from Warwick and partner universities around the world. Partners include Monash University, with campuses across Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The teams work together on a real project over four weeks, and LangOptima takes part as one of those partner organizations.

01

A real brief

We bring a genuine project or business challenge from the work we do: enterprise AI, knowledge graphs, language technology, or growth. It is real work, not a classroom exercise.

02

A global team

Six to eight students from Warwick and partner universities, across different disciplines and time zones, form a team for the project. Many are working with teammates in another country, people they have never met.

03

Four focused weeks

The team works online over four weeks. Students start with an onboarding workshop to build their employability skills, and have access to an organization mentor throughout. The mentoring is the part we lead.

Our role

How we lead a team for four weeks

As the organization mentor, we set the brief, meet the team through the project, and give the kind of direction and feedback students would get at work. The aim is simple: a piece of work the team is proud of, and four weeks that feel like industry rather than coursework.

Week 1

Kick off & frame

We introduce the challenge, the context, and what a good outcome looks like, then help the team shape a plan and split the work across their disciplines.

Weeks 2–3

Build & steer

Regular check-ins to unblock the team, react to what they find, and keep the work pointed at the outcome. We answer questions the way a client or manager would.

Week 4

Deliver & reflect

The team presents what they built. We give honest, useful feedback on both the work and how they worked together, the kind they can carry into internships and first jobs.

What we bring

  • A problem worth a team’s time, drawn from live work.
  • Context and direction: the “why” behind the brief, not just the task.
  • Steady access to a mentor who does this work for a living.
  • Honest feedback, given at a professional standard.

What students take away

  • Experience of a cross-border, cross-discipline project.
  • Intercultural, communication, and project-management skills under a deadline.
  • A finished piece of work to talk about with employers.
  • A view of enterprise AI and growth from inside a working company.

For universities & institutions

Put a real industry project in front of your students

If you run a course, module, or industry-experience program at a university and would like your students to work on genuine enterprise AI, data, language-technology, or growth challenges, we would like to hear from you. They would be mentored by someone who does this work every day. TeaMWork is one of the programmes we currently take part in, and we are open to working with other institutions and programs too.

A good fit if

  • You want your students working on a live problem from a real organization, alongside their coursework.
  • Your students span disciplines: technical and non-technical both work well.
  • You value international, remote collaboration as part of the experience.
  • You are open to a short, focused project rather than a long placement.

How to start

  • Send a short note about your institution and your students.
  • We reply directly. You speak with Edwin Trebels, LangOptima’s founder, not a sales team.
  • We agree on a project and a timeframe that fits your calendar.

You can also write directly to edwin.trebels@langoptima.com, or use the contact page.