Amplifying data science skills through work experience

TD School’s Master of Data Science and Innovation (MDSI) is positioned to meet the ever-growing demand for data skills across all industries and sectors, with data an increasingly valuable commodity in the professional landscape. A hands-on postgraduate degree, the MDSI is distinctive thanks to it transdisciplinary approach that integrates perspectives from diverse fields and places importance on equipping learners with tools to not only apply technical skills in real-world situations, but also to transform practice in a field that is advancing quickly.

While internships have been the domain of undergraduate students, enabling them to build their professional learning and work experience, the benefits of interning is now increasingly being encouraged to enhancing learning for postgraduate students. The MDSI degree offers students the option to undertake a data science internship, providing master’s students with the opportunity to apply skills they’ve learned in the classroom to real challenges.

The NSW Government’s Centre for Work Health and Safety is a valued TD School partner who provides ongoing opportunities for our students to refine their skills, build their networks and engage in practical learning.

Through their academic studies program, the Centre onboarded nine UTS student interns, eight of those being current MDSI students, organising the interns into three transdisciplinary teams.

“We wanted to give everyone an opportunity to gain work experience as part of their course credit. But it also provided us with varying perspectives and solutions to the challenge we put forward,” said Dr Sazzad Hussain, Senior Research and Data Science Officer at the Centre for Work Health and Safety, who supervised the students during their 11-week internship.

Having multiple interns working together on the challenge provided a myriad of benefits to the organisation and encouraged peer learning.

Real world application

Internships are an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge in a real context. They provide opportunities build networks and test out different career possibilities.

“I chose to complete an internship because I thought it would be a great experience for me to show on my resume, and hopefully make it easier to transition into a different career,” said Yan Yang, a MDSI student.

Moreover, internships enable students to self-evaluate their capabilities, and place greater meaning on their skillsets.

“My mentor suggested it would be best to evaluate myself in a working environment, so I could test my level of knowledge and identify areas I could improve in. I’ve studied a lot on my own, and I’ve gained a lot of skills. It’s only meaningful if I get into industry and see how I am at this moment,” said Mostafa Jalal, an MDSI student.

Work-integrated learning is quickly gaining traction as an integral component of education and building employability of graduates and is a distinct priority across UTS. It’s experiences such as those offered by Centre for Work Health and Safety NSW that reaffirm the impact that industry learning can have on student experience and self-confidence.

Yang noted, “After completing my internship with Centre for Work Health and Safety, I feel like the things we learn at uni are not just theory, but can be used in real life to make an impact in an organisation. That realisation is something that gives me confidence for my career development.”

Communicating without jargon

Communicating complex data processes and insights to a group of non-technical stakeholders without jargon can be a challenging task. As part of their internship, the students were expected to communicate their work to diverse stakeholders across the organisation.

“We had to present in front of the technical people who were in the data science and R&D departments, but then in the final presentation, in front of the executive director, it was our task to describe what we had done for the non-technical people, and the values that we can create [in our work],” said Jalal.

Being provided with the ongoing opportunity to present, refine their communication skills and receive feedback from various stakeholders was invaluable, with Hussain setting up an intentional internship structure that had students presenting regularly so they could refine their skills in communicating with jargon-free language.

In the business of codesign

Reimagining a traditional internship through codesign promotes meaningful learning opportunities for both interns and the host organisation.

“We put forward a problem that was fresh, new and somewhat low risk. It was an opportunity for us to experiment a new field to see if there was potential for further exploration,” said Hussain.

Providing an open-ended challenge allowed the students to explore possibilities. Yang highlighted that Hussain as a supervisor “gave us guidance but was also very open to our ideas, which meant we could be creative with the project."

Hussain met with the students every Friday to provide support, feedback, and direction and an opportunity for interns to ask questions.

“When we started the internship, we didn’t have an end goal. We could explore and then Sazzad would listen and provide us with meaningful feedback. He would spend time doing his own research and then come back to us with answers to our questions. He was a great supervisor,” said Jalal.

When we started the internship, we didn’t have an end goal. We could explore and then Sazzad would listen and provide us with meaningful feedback. He would spend time doing his own research and then come back to us with answers to our questions. He was a great supervisor.

– Mostafa Jalal, MDSI student

All nine students would work onsite on Fridays where they would meet with their supervisor, Hussain for a morning briefing before enjoying a team lunch and working collaboratively in the afternoons. Outside of one fixed day, the interns were encouraged to be self-directed in completing tasks and exploring the problem space during the week.

Codesigning the internship experience gave the students greater opportunities to learn beyond the technical skills, while The Centre for Work Health and Safety felt they received extrinsic and intrinsic benefits from their participation.

“Outputs from the internship are data tools that connect to social media platforms and present insights based on what people are saying and trends in current or emerging workplace hazards and risks, but also potential opportunities of harm prevention. This provided the Centre a glimpse of what is possible through data science, to smartly extract insights from social media data around work health and safety. The internship program is not only a channel to experiment new ideas for the organisation, but it’s also a way to give students an experience they can apply in their course and career development,” said Hussain.

Peer learning

Working in a team of peers from diverse backgrounds creates opportunities for more collaboration, skills development and peer-to-peer networking.

“The most amazing part of working in a group was that not everyone’s background was the same. It was important for us to learn what everyone could do, and not just show your own work but to know everyone's and provide each other with feedback,” said Jalal.

Of all the different skills the interns felt they refined during the experience, the development of their ‘soft’ skills was highlighted as a valuable takeaway. Centre for Work Health and Safety’s decision to set up teams of interns led the students to become comfortable providing and receiving constructive feedback.

How I provide constructive feedback to my teammates is important, especially when working together and wanting to encourage everyone to work together.

– Yan Yang, MDSI student

“I learnt how to seek and give feedback with my peers and supervisor. How I provide constructive feedback to my teammates is important, especially when working together and wanting to encourage everyone to work together,” said Yang.

When it comes to capability building, the learning opportunities don’t pass one way. There’s room in hosting interns for mutual learning in the organisation.

“No one knows everything. It’s always good to have curiosity. Sazzad was keen to learn. He would consistently ask questions to learn more about techniques we used,” said Yang.

Hosting nine students provided the Centre for Work Health and Safety with a group of eager, curious master’s students who impressed with their collaborative approach. Hussain praised the interns noting;

“Everyone had a keen interest to learn through the internship…not only working within their own team, but also supporting other team members in reaching the goals. And this is what brought out their [interns] leadership initiatives, the collaborative mindset, and communication strategies.”

Everyone had a keen interest to learn through the internship…not only working within their own team, but also supporting other team members in reaching the goals. And this is what brought out their [interns] leadership initiatives, the collaborative mindset, and communication strategies.

– Dr Sazzad Hussain, Senior Research and Data Science Officer at Centre for Work Health and Safety NSW

From one partner to the next

“It’s important to think about what value the organisation is going to get out of the internship and consider what resource capacity is available to actually manage the interns,” said Hussain.

“But from my experience, if you’re well prepared and can provide the right kind of time and support to the students, having multiple interns is very beneficial and can add a lot to the organisation.”

Thank you to NSW Government’s Centre for Work Health and Safety, Sazzad Hussain and all the staff that supported TD School students in their professional development through this internship placement.  

Congratulations to the UTS interns!  
Amol Chintaman Raut, Anika Aishwarja, Ari Lam, Brandon Ji, Emmanuel Annor, Mostafa Jalal, Yan Yang, Wing Chak Cheng and Zan Li.

Learn more about data science internships