In 2018, the Commonwealth Bank Innovation Lab in partnership with the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation undertook an internship involving three UTS students from mixed disciplines. Chloe, Annette and Joe all worked alongside Nathan from CBA, in multidisciplinary projects covering different problems faced by the bank.
Among the projects, the effects of climate change on sporting events in Australia, a software application designed to minimise wage theft for young people, and a project aiming to understand the use of blockchain in relation to the NSW biodiversity offset scheme and how it could impact bio investment by the bank and its stakeholders. Each project had a deliverable which was presented to executives and managers at CBA, with a call to action from Nathan, the internship supervisor, to look to university students when thinking about industry problems.
Joseph, who led the project around the NSW biodiversity scheme reflected enthusiastically on his experience and input into the project, and the opportunity itself.
"The project was already in an early phase within the organisation. The work I did was essentially to build a business case to decide whether blockchain should be implemented, or whether a different solution should be chosen."
From an academic perspective, the project embedded core work-integrated-learning principles in a guided and structured experience which was negotiated by the faculty with the employer. But it isn't just a one-way street and we don't expect that employers won't benefit from the experience. Bem Le Hunte, the Course Director of Creative Intelligence and Innovation, with the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation speaks about the importance of UTS students contributing positively to organisations, as part of their learning experiences. "Our students are making an extraordinary contribution to the workplaces that they're going out to, and we hope employers see that", she remarks.
The students themselves, when presenting their work to the executives and leaders of the institution, were also commenting on the trust afforded them by Nathan and his team, and on the opportunity to bring what they had learnt in their degrees, to practical settings.
"The group itself was so diverse, and we come from outside the problem. We had been given a unique opportunity to look at things in a new way, to try and solve challenges in a way that hasn't been tried before" Said Chloe, one of the students.
"I sense that we brought energy and optimism," remarked Annette when asked how she felt the projects were received. "We were able to apply methods that we had learnt in the BCII, in a direct way to the problems rapidly."
When asked about the experience of managing the internship from an employer perspective, Nathan said that it exceeded his expectations.
"I was a little apprehensive with the students coming in and thought I'd really need to handhold. However, what I learned was that by appreciating up front what the students were looking to achieve, we could then design an experience where they could all bring to the table their own knowledge, their own perspectives and their own experiences."
"My key learning is to trust university students with professional problems."
To find out more about internships, or how to connect with UTS student talent, visit industry.uts.edu.au. To discover more about the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation and available partnership opportunities, click here.