Originally published by David Lt on LinkedIn.
When you think of the ideal university degree, I would guess that you’d hope it incorporated some words like ‘innovation’, ‘problem solving’, ‘creativity’, and ‘complexity’. Well, the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation, that sits within the new UTS Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation, covers all those things and more! In fact, the BCII is one of the most applied for degrees at UTS.
I was able to speak with Rhi, who works to coordinate industry partnerships and internships within the BCII, on some of the ways their students are getting involved with employers and organisations.
Your team just saw the first BCII cohort graduate. Was it interesting to see how they went in terms of the response (or push back) from industry?
“Yes, we have just seen our first students graduate and head out into the workforce. While it’s early days, there is a lot of positivity and expectation around the degree. From our perspective, industry doesn’t push back at all - it’s quite the opposite. Some of our students have gone into roles that didn’t exist before they arrived, even incorporating the term ‘creative intelligence’ into their job titles!
Industry environments are constantly shifting and growing, and already our students are out there participating in these changing environments.”
So there is a lot of communication with employers from your perspective?
“Our faculty is built on industry partnerships. The concept of building a ‘transdisciplinary’ degree can’t exist without the involvement of employers and industry partners, so from the inception of BCII we’ve been consulting with industry and keeping them engaged with our students regularly.
As part of the degree there is two internships: one compulsory and one voluntary, as well as Industry Innovation Projects and in-class workshops and briefs. So there is definitely a lot of communication with employers, and a lot of opportunity for employers to experience firsthand, and contribute to the continual growth of BCII!”
It’s interesting to see internships being so core to the construction of the whole degree. I assume that would mean a lot of work for you and team in sourcing these internships - how do you find them?
“Yeah we really pound the pavement to find the right partners. For us, networks are key. We aren’t just looking for anyone and everyone, we want to see the twinkle of excitement in the eye of an employer when we begin to describe what students are learning. And in that, specific internships are key to ensuring a successful learning experience for the student. We aren’t just throwing students into roles we don’t know much about. We work with employers on how they want to be involved and what’s offered.”
“Often, we are led by intriguing industry problems; where do we need some creativity to find entirely new solutions?”
“We’re also led by serendipity; we have a saying around the office about how we like to ‘engineer serendipity’, which essentially means we are always on the lookout for a great connection or opportunity for our students to add value to employers.
We are getting the hang of it now, knowing what sort of opportunity or connection is ‘us’. But it’s not all networking events and parties – we do have targets. We have a number of internships that we have to arrange for students, and within that, students also need to complete an application process and be the right fit from the employers perspective.”
Obviously it’s not ‘one size fits all’ then. I can imagine it would be attractive for employers who see the value of innovation and entrepreneurship skills in candidates. It’s a two way street then?
“That’s it. A great example of that: recently we had three students intern with the innovation unit of quite a large organisation. The students were each given a unique problem to try and solve for the duration of their internship. The problems were not constrained to particular discipline areas, or business units. There was a sense of ambiguity; the problems were complex and so there was a lot of room for creativity. However, the key thing was that there was also strong support from the mentor to those interns, who provided guidance and feedback at critical times during the process. What the students produced has been outstanding, and is being seen as a benchmark within that company in the hiring of interns going forward.”
“The employer mentioned to me that they found the experience immensely rewarding. I believe a direct quote was ‘I’ll never go anywhere else for interns’.”
So how do you identify the right kinds of opportunities? The kinds that offer both something to students as well as something to employers?
“Essentially, we are actively looking for opportunities that offer our students a few distinct value-adds.
First: creative liberty. How can a student bring the knowledge they have, the experience and networks they have built, and their unique perspective to the organisation offering the internship?
The second thing is a real challenge. How can a student continue to develop the way they think and see the world? A key benefit of any internship should be the chance to have your worldview impacted.
The third is a chance to explore. I understand that not all work is enlightening all the time. We too have to contend with spreadsheets, data entry, and ordinary tasks as part of our roles. But within that, is there a chance to explore new processes, new applications of these processes, experiences, gathering information in different ways – we’re talking about highly analytical and creative students. We try to teach them to approach problems as challenges. There might just be a pathway through the challenge presented through their internship that perhaps, no one has discovered yet.”
*Find out more about internships at industry.uts.edu.au.
Rhiannon Tuntevski would summarise what her life is about in three words: Creativity, connectivity, and communication. She is currently working on strategic industry partnerships within the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation at UTS. With a background in innovation and a love for NFP work, strategy, communications and marketing, (and many other bits and pieces), she is energised by connecting people and focussed on delivering innovative experiences for organisations with a desire to learn and develop.