Kay Kirkland – Head of Applied Business
A very important part of the School of Applied Business, led by Kay Kirkland, is their Industry Based Learning course (IBL). The School has had a long and significant history with work or industry based learning, which has been undertaken by our Graduate Diploma in Business, Graduate Diploma in Professional Accounting and final year Bachelor of Business students, since 1995. The course involves students undertaking a specific project and a series of work tasks within a workplace as part of their programme of learning.
IBL is an educational partnership between host organisations, Unitec and our students. We provide our partner businesses with enthusiastic and well-trained senior students, who apply their newly gained expertise, fresh ideas and inspiration to their hosts’ businesses. The hosts develop clear project outlines and duties for our students and also ensure they provide appropriate support and supervision of the work, and allocate sufficient resources to ensure the students can complete the project.
The agreement between all parties is clarified via a formal plan and our staff work as academic supervisors to support hosts and students in their placements. We match students with appropriate academic supervisors; they are a key part of the internship, visiting the student in the workplace to provide support to both the students and their hosts. The School also helps students to find and secure appropriate host organisations. This can be challenging for international students and those who are not from Auckland.
Work based learning is a key component of our commitment to provide our students with real world learning. During this co-operative learning experience our students gain real understanding of workplace practice, they develop and enhance work competencies, and very importantly, they make tangible connections between theory and practice. Another key part of their learning experience is the critical reflection they must undertake and which they are assessed on.
There is a high pass rate for the IBL course and event better, a high permanent employment rate with host organisations. In Semester 1 of this year over 50% of our IBL students were offered full time employment with their host organisations, while others quickly secured work in other organisations or obtained promotions at their existing places of work.
Very importantly, our host organisations routinely report high levels of satisfaction with our IBL students; many of our hosts having a ‘standing order’ for fresh interns each year. In some areas i.e. digital marketing and business analytics, the School is unable to meet the demand for interns, so this will be a focus for the School in the upcoming Bachelor of Business review.
Students also report that having real world work experience on their CVs enhances their career prospects and makes them stand out from their competitors in the often-difficult new graduate market. Employers always want experience but few graduates actually have it. Having the IBL experience on their CV gives our students a ‘jump on the competition’. They also regularly use their IBL experiences in job interviews to highlight their abilities and competencies. This is also a drawcard for our international students, providing an incentive to enrol in our Graduate Diploma in Business, Graduate Diploma in Professional Accounting or Bachelor of Business degree, due to the opportunities that the IBL experience offers them post study.
Jacky McManus – Director of HR Operations
We have an example of an IBL happy ‘customer’ within Unitec, our Director of HR Operations – Jacky McManus. Jacky’s team has hosted an intern each year for the past couple of years and they report high levels of satisfaction with our students. Jacky reports:
“We look forward to securing an IBL internship each semester. This programme is a fantastic way for students to experience the real life of Human Resources and to produce a valuable project that aligns with our HR journey. They are able to utilise their research skills to research a topic and produce a valuable initiative for us to roll out. Our current intern has a project to provide guidelines for prospective employees and managers, for facilitating support at interviews e.g. whanau interviews. She has a special interest in gender and diversity so this aligns beautifully with her education and interests, and will be a valuable resource for our managers and prospective employees going forward.
Unitec is a great place for a graduate to experience the different facets of HR, e.g. the day to day worlds of HR Services, HR Business Partners, Recruitment Team and Payroll. This gives them a great insight into the realities of HR in the workplace and assists them with deciding upon an ideal area in which to start their career.”
This Semster the School of Applied Business is working with 51 organisations and many of these relationships go back more than five years. These organisations are hosting students in Accounting, HR, Marketing and Operations, and are diverse, ranging from large corporates to small SMES. Hosts also include government and not-for profit organisations. Our IBL students are working across a range of industries, including FMCGs, pharmaceuticals, business services, health, events and hospitality, education, transport and logistics.
It would be great if you could help us spread the ‘IBL word’, as we are always looking for new hosting opportunities within Unitec and are keen to connect with potential host organisations. If you have any suggestions or ideas for us, please contact Kay Kirkland – Head of Applied Business or Denisa Hebblethwaite – School of Applied Business Lecturer and IBL Co-ordinator.