The WIL program at Deakin Business School has provided real-world learning and a great career start for these three graduates.
With students from all Deakin Business School undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs eligible for work integrated learning, the program is thriving, busily placing students into internships in Australia and overseas.
Here are the experiences of just three of these students. Their placements range from small operations to ‘big four’ accounting/consulting firms. The different internships developed a variety of professional skills but all provided invaluable experiences, grew professional networks and created opportunities for the future.
Jake Williams is a BCom/LLB student who will finish his studies next year. He completed an internship with KPMG ’s Financial Advice Compliance Team, working 16 hours a week over 10 weeks.
“This internship required me to assist members of the Compliance Team with various tasks such as Financial Advice Compliance File Reviews and general administrative duties.”
“The experience provided me with practical ‘real-world’ application of various theoretical topics I had studied,” says Jake. Ultimately, it delivered a very satisfying outcome, “due to the connections and impressions I made during my internship, this allowed me to be offered a position within the KPMG Grad Program.”
All this from someone who sees himself as an ordinary student, “I have not received any specific awards through my studies, as such, I am particularly proud of myself that as an ‘average’ student, I was able to find my way into a highly sought after grad program.”
Jordanna Mooney is due to graduate from her Bachelor of Commerce (major in Human Resource Management & Organisational Psychology) this year and she enjoyed both an international and a local internship experience in the short space of a year.
“I completed two WIL (Work Integrated Learning) units in my final year of my degree,” she says. “One was a Team Internship in Lancaster, England, where we worked within a team completing a consulting project for a local digital animation company, Morph.”
For Jordanna, the benefits of this internship emerged directly from the challenges, “the Team Internship helped me grow personally, since travelling overseas with people I didn’t know was something I never thought I’d be capable of doing. Everyone was in the same boat and we were able to bond very quickly.”
“Professionally,” she says, “acting as a consultant for a real company with real issues was invaluable in transferring what I had learnt in the classroom to the real world.”
How was she able to fit them in? “The Team Internship went for two weeks over the trimester break,” which she describes as “incredible, because I was able to complete an intensive unit as well as have the opportunity to travel.”
Then, at EY (formerly Ernst & Young) for two days a week over nine weeks, she was “still able to work and study at the same time while completing an invaluable internship.”
“The Business Internship helped me become more independent, as well as having the opportunity to meet a lot of professionals within the industry.”
“Internships create the difference between just having a degree and having experience where you are able to show how you applied yourself.”
Anushka Godakandage is a graduate student completing his Master of Professional Accounting and Finance this year and, thanks to his internship, he has moved into a paid position with his internship host company – Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific.
For Anushka “the internship was quite helpful in gathering knowledge as well as converting all the theory learnt over the course to practice.” And, of course, a great opportunity “to gather corporate experience.”
Specifically, you get “hands on experience of concepts and theories you learn in your course solidifying the knowledge you gathered, while understanding how they currently are applied in the corporate word.” This creates a positive feedback loop that “further enhances your study as you gather practical exposure to what you currently study.”
“The experience gathered in the Internship was crucial in opening up a new role for me in the same organisation at the conclusion of my internship.”
Work integrated learning is available to all Deakin Business School students find out more.