Work Placement Scheme
The Career Services Work Placement Scheme (WPS) offers a great opportunity for final year students to gain valuable work experience in an area relevant to your program of study. Some placements are advertised on MyCareerPlan, and if you're prepared to put in a bit of effort you may also be able to source your own placement in your ideal organisation. UniSA Career Services will help you arrange insurance and liaise with your host organisation as required.
How does the Work Placement Scheme work?
The Work Placement Scheme offers support to students who wish to undertake an unpaid work placement relevant to their program of study. There are two ways you can obtain a placement:
- By sourcing your own placement. This allows you to target the organisations, or roles, or industries, that interest you most. Also, you don't need to worry about competing with other students for the placement position. The Work Experience section of this website provides information about how to find work experience opportunities.
- Some Work Placement Scheme projects are advertised on MyCareerPlan. These positions are displayed under jobs with the prefix WPS (see Vacation/Internship/Cadetship/Work Experience and Voluntary/Community). You will need to contact the Career Services staff member nominated in the advertisement, who will provide you with the application instructions.
Once you are successful in finding your own placement, or in applying for a placement advertised on MyCareerPlan, you need to complete the following steps:
- Contact Chris Keech in Career Services. You will need to provide Chris with:
your program name
your own contact details
the name of your host organisation
your contact person's name and details
a brief outline of the placement or project
the start and finish date of the project
Chris will send you a WPS student information kit and an insurance form.
- Ask your Program Director and a representative of the host organisation to complete your insurance form. You must then return copies of the completed form to Chris and to the University's Insurance Officer. You must not commence your placement until both copies are received by UniSA.
- At the end of your placement, you will be asked to complete an evaluation form. Once we receive your form, we will send you a certificate of participation.
How long are WPS placements?
If you source your own placement, you can negotiate the timeframe with the host organisation. Placements advertised on MyCareerPlan will indicate the timing for the project. For example, some may be for one day a week for two months or for an entire week during a semester break. To be eligible for the Scheme, the placement must be a minimum of 35 hours in total. No placement can require students to work more than two days a week during the study period.
Can I be assessed on my placement?
No. Work Placement Scheme placements will be undertaken in your own time, and will not be a formal part of your program. This means that you can negotiate your hours with your host organisation. The only involvement of your academic staff will be that your Program Director will have to sign an insurance form agreeing to your participation in the placement and confirming that the placement is relevant to your program.