Meet the Chairperson partnering with Universities to bring projects to life

For aged care and retirement villages, it can be challenging to find the right resources to work on projects or short-term innovations that you want to implement.

However, there are many opportunities to engage talented people through university student placement programs. Having worked with these programs for many years, I recommend establishing a good relationship with local universities that are looking to place post-graduate students through their formal work experience programs.

Many post-graduate courses now require final-year students to undertake between 95 and 145 hours within structured work experience projects, so they need organisations to give them opportunities.  Through these placement programs, at Juliana Village, Miranda, we have engaged with accounting, IT, HR and marketing students to assist with specific projects such as: helping prepare the annual budget, setting up an asset management system, reviewing personnel policies, and establishing a social media framework. The benefits can be fantastic for both the student and the organisation. 

Most post-graduate students already have at least one university degree and have often worked in their profession for several years, so they bring invaluable experience, knowledge and skills; international students say they appreciate the opportunity to gain local work experience while bringing more diversity to the organisation; and the placement programs can lead to the recruitment of talented people who would not ordinarily seek employment in the aged care and retirement sector.

The universities typically run their placement programs twice a year, though the timing may differ per course/faculty. Most of the structured programs are for unpaid placements, with the students being insured by the university. 

To find out more information about these programs, go to the Employer pages of the university websites.