27769 Professional Internship for Graduates

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.

UTS: Business
Credit points: 6 cp

Subject level:

Postgraduate

Result type: Grade and marks

There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Anti-requisite(s): 26799 Internship Experience

Note

Enrolment requires meeting the subject’s prerequisites and completing prerequisite tasks. For more information, go to Postgraduate internship subjects.

Students may not enrol business internship subject in the last session of study to ensure that completion of required hours of work will not impact on graduation and/or international students' visa conditions.

Description

This subject expands on students’ existing professional, business, technical and ethical decision-making skills. It allows them to foster and diversify their current career experience through a deeply integrated practice approach and through the development of professional networks and prospects. For those students who have limited work experience, this subject provides the opportunity, through a placement, to gain work integrated learning experience and to relate it to theoretical and applied learning.

It is open to graduate students in the UTS Business School, who have an available elective in their course. To undertake this subject, students must first secure an internship of 100-180 hours duration with an organisation and then refer to the UTS Business School’s Internship website for additional information and requirements to enrol in the subject. Students must not commence the internship until they have officially enrolled in this subject and their internship has been formally approved.

The terms and time frame of the internship experience are negotiated between the student and host organisation. The internship must be based on an agreed and approved program of work which aims to achieve pre-determined learning objectives.

Important: It is to note that the placement is not guaranteed.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:

1.	Demonstrate professional practice skills in a workplace setting e.g. collaboration, negotiation, communication, cultural awareness
2.	Apply prior learning knowledge and technical skills in a workplace setting
3.	Discuss and evaluate the importance of cultural awareness, ethical and socially responsible decision-making in business or organizational practices
4.	Critically reflect on the learning and development outcomes of the workplace experience

Contribution to the development of graduate attributes

This subject provides students with the opportunity to integrate academic coursework with postgraduate professional development. Through authentic work integrated learning experiences (WIL) taking place in classroom, online and within workplace settings, students are challenged to critically reflect on their experience, relating theory to practice. Throughout the placement, students apply their theoretical knowledge and concepts to practical settings, as set out in their collaborative learning contract. Students are encouraged to develop and apply their creative and analytical skills to their placement project, and to critically reflect on this experience throughout the semester. Online and class activities will prepare students in terms of the cultural and professional dimensions of workplace communication skills. Final assessments and in-class activities focus both on the students’ personal and professional development with a focus on career transition.

Overall, this subject contributes to the following graduate attribute(s):

Intellectual rigour and creative problem solving
Communication and collaboration
Cultural awareness and social responsibility
Professional and technical competence

Teaching and learning strategies

The majority of students' time is spent in the workplace environment. This experience is supplemented by compulsory preparatory materials provided online, and synchronous workshops which involve interactive activities and opportunities for students to collaborate. On-site guidance is provided by the external host organisation, which must assign a workplace supervisor to the student. Students receive ongoing feedback from their host organisation supervisor, and formative feedback through synchronous workshops. Students should check their Canvas sites and announcements for details of workshops and mentoring available through the subject.

Content (topics)

Goal setting and self-awareness
Workplace communication
Ethics in the workplace
Reflective learning

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Professional Plan � Internship Portfolio (Individual)

Objective(s):	This addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 2 and 4
Weight:	20%
Length:	1000 words.
Criteria:	Identification and justification of the project scope Communication Critical reflection of the proposed project

Assessment task 2: Placement Project (Individual)

Objective(s):	This addresses subject learning objective(s): 1 and 2
Weight:	40%
Length:	Further details will be posted on Canvas.
Criteria:	Business/Service Knowledge Communication and Presentation Critical analysis Supervisor Evaluation

Assessment task 3: Reflective Journal/Report (Individual)

Objective(s):	This addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 3 and 4
Weight:	40%
Length:	Up to 2000 words. See format on Canvas.
Criteria:	Knowledge and professional development Evaluation and ongoing reflection Critical Analysis Communication and Presentation

Minimum requirements

To pass the subject, students must achieve at least 50% of the final overall grade.

Required texts

There is no prescribed text.

References

Go to Canvas for a further bank of references.

Billett, S. (2010). The practices of learning through occupations. In Learning through practice (pp. 59-81). Springer, Dordrecht.
Quintanilla K & Wahl S (2018) Business and Professional Communication: Keys for workplace excellence (4th Edn), Sage, Los Angeles, US.
Trede, F. (2012). Role of work-integrated learning in developing professionalism and professional identity. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 13(3), pp.159-167.
Trede, F., & McEwen, C. (2016). Scoping the deliberate professional. In Educating the Deliberate Professional (pp. 3-14). Springer, Cham.