About Practera

Practera is an AI-driven experiential learning company that connects university students with real industry projects and work experiences. Founded in Sydney, Australia in 2010, Practera combines its technology platform, global employer network, and expert delivery team to help universities, employers, and governments design, deliver, and measure work-integrated learning (WIL), work-based learning (WBL), and short-term virtual internships at scale. Institutions choose how much Practera does: fully managed programs run end-to-end by Practera’s team, co-delivered models, or hands-off access to the platform for programs they run themselves. Practera works with 130+ university partners and 10,000+ industry partners, and more than 250,000 learners worldwide have taken part in its programs.

Practera combines technology, industry partnerships and human support to help institutions deliver real-world learning at scale. In a typical managed program, Practera sources the industry partners, designs the project brief, onboards students and employers, and supports delivery end-to-end, including communications, scheduling, risk alerts and facilitation. Teams of students complete genuine consulting or research briefs, receive structured feedback from industry, and produce portfolio-ready deliverables, while educators keep full control of learning outcomes, assessment and academic oversight.

Underneath every program sits the Practera platform: structured feedback tools, skills and reflection frameworks, dashboards, and AI-driven analytics that flag risk and disengagement while a program is running, not after it ends. Programs delivered through Practera include industry and consulting projects, short-term virtual internships (also called industry experience programs), large-scale challenges, accelerators and bootcamps, and employability programs, delivered in-curricular for credit or as extra-curricular and co-curricular initiatives.

Institutions choose the level of support that fits their team, from hands-on to hands-off. In fully managed programs, Practera runs the operational side end-to-end, so one coordinator can oversee hundreds of students. In co-delivered programs, Practera and institutional staff share design and delivery. Institutions with their own capability can license the platform and run programs themselves. Program models range from short projects (2 to 4 weeks) and applied consulting-style projects (4 to 10 weeks) through to large-scale challenges, global and hybrid projects, and mentoring and skills modules, scaling from 50 to 5,000+ learners. Most universities launch a first program in 4 to 6 weeks.

Practera works with 130+ university partners and 10,000+ industry partners, and more than 250,000 learners worldwide have taken part in its programs. University partners include King’s College London, Loughborough University, SOAS University of London, the University of Strathclyde Glasgow, the University of Leeds, The London School of Economics and Political Science, The University of Sydney and the University of NSW.

Practera also delivers flagship programs for governments and institutions, including the Study Australia Industry Experience Program (SAIEP) for the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, the University of Sydney’s Job Smart employability program, LIVE Projects, a three-week program that has served 1,800+ students across 15 Victorian universities, and the Horizons Programme supporting Widening Participation students in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Practera is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with teams supporting programs in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. Programs run online, in person and in hybrid formats, so institutions and learners can take part from anywhere.

Practera’s mission is to create opportunity for people through accessible experiential learning. We believe experiential learning can unlock the potential of billions of people as the demands of work change, and that every learner, whatever their background or location, deserves access to education that builds real-world skills.

Practera was founded in 2010 by Beau Leese (Co-Founder and Co-CEO), Wes Sonnenreich (Co-Founder and Co-CEO) and Suzy Watson (Co-Founder and CFO).