I recently engaged in a project with the Big Data Analytics Program at Georgian College titled "Succession Planning: Data Analysis, Patterns Identification, and Recommendations". The goal was to bridge academic perspectives with practical industry challenges through direct student involvement in real data collection and analysis. However, the project faced significant hurdles, primarily around data collection and ending up not meet our project objectives. This was partly due to insufficient support in guiding the students on how to engage effectively with industry data sources. While the theoretical aspects of the program might be solid, those considering this partnership may want to discuss expectations and support mechanisms in detail to ensure that project outcomes align with your needs. It's crucial for such collaborations to provide tangible skills and experiences that translate into industry readiness and unfortunately my expectation for deliverables weren't met making it quite difficult to judge that industry readiness.