Here are some recommendations for how internship supervisors can support Master of Data Science and Innovation (MDSI) students during their internships.

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, MDSI students engage in a professional workplace context and undertake experiential work-based learning to develop their professional identities, together with an understanding of the professional practice of data science.

Alongside the tasks and duties undertaken for their internships, students also complete academic assessments for their internship subjects. During the internship, students will observe and learn about the application of data science, participate in workplace tasks, and should receive ongoing feedback from their workplace supervisors. Students will also critically reflect on their participation, project progress and their responses to feedback and business requirements in a reflection report. This allows them to engage in a unique learning journey in a workplace-based learning environment.

How to support students with their assessments

For their Data Science Internship subjects MDSI students submit three assessments, here is how you can support your intern with these academic requirements:

  • Internship Plan: Within the first 4 weeks of the placement, the student will need to create an Internship Plan that outlines their learning objectives for the internship. As part of this plan, interns need to agree a timeline for their internship activities, the deliverables, and criteria for its completion with their internship supervisor (you). You will be asked to sign off on this plan before it is submitted to TD School (by the student) as an assessment task.
  • Placement Report: At the end of the internship, the student will submit a report for assessment to TD School, this will outline the work they have undertaken (deidentified, no sensitive information or data to be shared), reporting on outcomes and outputs. You can help the student with this by reviewing this report, if asked, and offering feedback to help them distil their work and accurately measure success.
  • Reflection Report: Submitted at the end of the internship, this report is an opportunity for students to map their data science capabilities, identify their professional learning from the placement and consider career pathways options. See suggested activities below for how to support students to validate their learning across the internship.

How to support students with their professional development

Here are two keys ways that supervisors can look to support students’ professional learning throughout an internship:

  1. Discuss student's individual learning goals at the start of the placement and identify how and where they can help facilitate this learning.
  2. During the internship offering regular times for feedback, both casual and more formal.

How to support interns and their professional learning outcomes

Contact

If you have questions about BCII and MDSI internships, contact 

TD School Partnerships - email: tdschoolpartnerships@uts.edu.au

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