Here are some recommendations for how internship supervisors can support Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation (BCII) students during their internships.
Supporting learning during a BCII internship
Internship subjects provide an important opportunity for students to prepare for the workforce by developing their professional skills through work-based learning. During their internships BCII students are looking to explore their transdisciplinary value proposition, by analysing their capabilities and building their professional identities.
Alongside the tasks and duties undertaken for their internships, students also complete academic assessments for their internship subjects. These assessments invite students to observe and reflect on how innovation is embedded in organisations and their practices. The subject also asks students to develop their own individual learning goals for their internships, empowering students to charter the gaps and growth in their own professional development as they mature their skill sets and build their experience for future careers.
There are lots of ways internship hosts can look to support student's learning throughout an internship, but here are two key ways that the internship supervisors (at the host org) can do this;
- Discuss student's individual learning goals at the start of the placement and identify how and where they can help facilitate this learning.
- During the internship offering regular times for feedback, both casual and more formal.
How to support interns and their professional learning outcomes
1. Start with a conversation
On the first day of the internship, create time and space for a one-on-one conversation.
- Discuss the student’s learning goals and reasons for undertaking this internship. Consider or plan how and where you can support or facilitate this development.
- Ask the student to talk about their skills, knowledge, and experience in relation to what they think you and the broader sector are looking for as employee attributes.
- Help the student identify any gaps and offer advice about how their skills and goals match the needs of your organisation and where should they focus some energy for development.
- Talk to the student about professionalism in your industry; how do your employees communicate and interact? What should they do if they need help or advice? What should they do if they are running late or fall behind on a project/deadline?
2. Help the student seek regular feedback
- Introduce the student to members of staff who can provide them with feedback on their work.
- Help the student to create time and space for feedback regularly throughout the internship.
3. Be curious about the student's skills, methods and approaches
- Provide opportunities for the student to be challenged in their work tasks.
- Be open to mutual learning opportunities, you could ask the student to share some transdisciplinary learning with you or your team, maybe lead an activity showcasing a methodology or approach to problem-solving.
4. Reflect on the experience together
- Discuss the internship and the student’s performance. What did they do well? Where could they improve and why this is important. You can use the professional indicators from the UTS Student Evaluation form to support this conversation.
- Complete the UTS Student Evaluation form. To provide feedback to both the student and TD School on the student’s professionalism, but also the internship experience.
- Ask the student what they enjoyed about the placement and whether it aligned with their expectations.
Other resources to help host organisations support learning
- The Australian Collaborative Education Network (ACEN)'s Industry Guide- make the most of WIL
- For online internships, this guide is a resource to help you support an internship placement remotely.
Contact
If you have questions about BCII and MDSI internships, contact:
Ben Crosariol, Work integrated learning partnerships manager, TD School
Email: ben.crosariol@uts.edu.au
