Hiring people with convictions: moving beyond stigma to opportunity

An efficient Product Manager will dedicate a lot of time to understanding the motivations of stakeholders and what good looks like to them. This engagement ensures that stakeholders feel heard and involved. It builds trust and gives them confidence that you understand what it takes to get things right.   But what happens when this engagement isn’t effectively completed or when internal stakeholders – your own team – aren’t heard? In this OpenPerspectives blog, Simon Hales, Senior Product Manager at Opencast, shares his perspectives on the challenge.

What happens when education, industry, and creativity come together in practice? In this blog, Vanessa Waters explores Opencast’s work with Daydream Believers and NHS Scotland, and how this collaboration is creating learning experiences that feel connected to the real world. Through the Caring Innovators NHS Challenge, young people navigate meaningful healthcare challenges, developing ideas and solutions that reach beyond the classroom. Alongside pupils, teachers are part of the journey too, building the confidence and tools to guide exploration that matters. At the heart of the work is Opencast’s first community partnership with Daydream Believers, bringing education and industry closer together to make learning more immersive, relevant and grounded — where the future of work meets the realities of today, and imagination finds a practical path into action.

In this blog, Ciara Slack, People Development Manager at Opencast, reflects on what it really takes to succeed as a Business Analyst, and why the skills that matter most might not be the ones you'd expect.