Invitation to host an intern

We invite your organisation to partner with us by hosting an undergraduate intern as part of the Faculty of Arts subject – Internship: Personal and Career Growth. In this invitation, we detail how you can support undergraduate students in developing as professionals, while infusing your team with enthusiasm and a fresh perspective.

About the Subject

Internship: Personal and Career Growth is an undergraduate subject in the Bachelor of Arts. The subject combines 80 to 100 hours of placement at the host organisation of the student’s choice with learning activities and assessments designed to foster students’ professional and personal identities. The culminating assessment of the subject – the personal/professional portfolio – is a chance for students to critically reflect on their internship learnings and present their skills and competencies to the world.

The subject is available to second- and third-year undergraduate students. It involves three compulsory seminars, an online learning component and regular supervision from academic staff delivered in the form of compulsory peer group consultations, where students discuss their internship experiences in a supportive environment. This sequence of learning activities supports the development of professional skills, behaviours and attitudes, and enables the subject’s teaching team to help students through any internship challenges.

Internship Dates

Students are expected to complete their internship hours within the timeframes outlined below and in line with the subject delivery period they are enrolled in.

Summer Term	Internships commence in late December/early January and are completed by mid- February.
Semester One	Internships commence in late February/early March and are completed by late May.
Semester Two	Internships commence in mid to late July and are completed by late October.

Students

The subject attracts large numbers of students from the following Arts majors:

• Psychology
• Political Science and International Relations
• Sociology
• Creative Writing
• Media and Communications

In addition to the Bachelor of Arts students, the subject is also available as a breadth option to students from other faculties. In the past, Science, Fine Arts and Music, and Design students chose to enrol in this subject.

Students are eager to learn practical skills and put their theoretical knowledge into practice in their internships. They have good academic skills, and they want an internship that can help them translate and transfer these skills into a real-world workplace. They are eager to work on specific projects and have tangible outcomes to showcase at the end of their internships.

Benefits of Hosting an Intern

Hosting student interns gives you an opportunity to enrich their learning experience and support the development of work-ready graduates. In many industries, having a voice of young people who are about to enter the workforce can also be an asset in the development of your products, services and/or other business or work outputs.

Past hosts have praised our students for being team players, good communicators and proactive self- starters. Following successful placements, some hosts have also gone on to employ their interns.

Expectations for Hosts

For the internship to be compliant with the University and subject’s requirements, please follow these steps:

• Help the student identify the terms of reference and assess any potential risks associated with the internship position
• Arrange workdays and times that allow the student to fully participate in their university studies, including compulsory seminar and consultation attendance in this subject
• Assign a placement supervisor who can support the student during their internship and be the point of contact for the University
• Sign the agreement before the internship start date – the agreement will be provided to you by the University

An internship is meant to be a learning experience, and we expect that the students will be given direction and supported in their development as capable members of your team. Specifically, we expect the hosts to:

• Assign meaningful tasks to interns
• Provide supervision and support
• Give regular feedback so that students can learn from their mistakes and successes
• Assign tasks that allow interns to have more ownership/show initiative (if the internship learning is progressing well)