Connect with us
Follow the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences on social media
Partnership_
Student internships and placements
Bring creativity to your workplace
Arts and social sciences students are creative, collaborative and adaptable – their exceptional communication skills and critical thinking equip them to thrive in an innovation-driven economy.
More and more organisations are recognising the value of employing graduates from the humanities and social sciences. Our students offer innovative approaches to problem solving, aptitude for logical argument, curiosity, inventiveness, critical thinking and the ability to synthesise information quickly, in addition to highly effective communication skills – all of which transfer readily to the workplace.
Our team was pleased to have taken part in the student internship placement. The experience has enabled us effective communication and learning in different ways of reviewing and working together, even in a global pandemic.
Tracy Duncan, Principal Management Officer, Implementation and Delivery, Department of Communities and Justice
Advantages for your organisation
By partnering with us, you can potentially boost both your workforce and your reputation. Our placements (paid and for credit) program offers students the opportunity to apply the knowledge and theory they have gained through their studies and implement sustainable solutions to your organisation’s most pressing challenges.
You will benefit from:
- gaining early access to high-calibre students
- evaluating potential employees through a proven, cost-effective partnership
- developing from fresh perspectives, ideas and innovation
- enhancing your reputation with other graduates through the positive experiences of our students.
Projects and tasks
During placements our students will enhance your day-to-day operations and gain valuable exposure to real-world processes and industry networks. In return, you’ll provide them with a planned, supervised experience, assigning a mentor/supervisor who challenges them with relevant work and extends their practical skills.
Projects and tasks may include:
- conducting research, competitor analysis and surveys
- producing effective and persuasive writing with balance and nuance
- developing social media engagement and generating online content
- interpreting and reviewing official documentation and communications
- synthesising complex information and writing concise reports.
Arrangement
Our Internships and Placements Coordinator will coordinate the arrangement with your organisation and our students from the selection through to the completion of the placement. The placement duration may vary if the arrangement is on a part-time or full-time basis. Generally part-time students intern 1-2 days a week over the course of the 13-week semester or until the hours are completed. Alternatively, full-time placements will see students interning 5 days a week over approximately 4 weeks.
Internships and placements
Our students can engage in a variety of student placements and internship programs including:
Senior year students undertaking the FASS3000 Internship Program gain valuable real-world experience whereby they are able to apply theoretical knowledge in a work environment under the supervision of supportive work colleagues. The internship is a supplemental educational opportunity offering students to explore career options, build professional connections and develop skills related to their undergraduate major in a work or work-related setting. During the internship, students will intern between 90-140 hours over 1-2 days per week throughout the semester. The work undertaken will be unpaid and for academic credit.
Please contact our placement officer to enquire about hosting an internship.
This program is an integral part of the fourth year Politics and International Relations stream seeing students interning with a placement organisation for 120 hours designed to connect theory with real-world practice. Students have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills in practical contexts while working in an organisation.
Please contact our placement officer to enquire about hosting an internship.
The Master of Cultural Studies internship program will provide you with practical experience in an organisation that undertakes or requires cultural research or analysis. This may range from education, policy, artistic practice or popular culture to consumer or community ethnography and activist work.
Please contact our placement officer to enquire about hosting an internship.
The Department of Media and Communications offers undergraduate and postgraduate students the opportunity to gain professional experience through discipline-specific internship programs in many high-profile media organisations. Host organisations include Fairfax Media, the ABC, SBS, public relations firms, publishing houses and in-house communication teams.
All Media and Communications undergraduate students undertake an internship with a media organisation in their final year of their degree. They possess the training and skills required for entry into areas such as print, broadcast and online media, and media relations.
Students from our Postgraduate Placements Program (pdf, 158KB) are well placed to work across a range of industries including book publishing, radio, and public relations. The program is open to Master degree students in Health Communication, Media Practice, Publishing, and Strategic Public Relations.
Please contact our media placement officer to enquire about hosting an internship.
Professional experience is a central component of all teacher-education and social work programs at the University of Sydney.
Information about social work field-education placements can be found in the Field Education/Practice Learning Handbook (PDF, 2.1MB), which is published annually by the Sydney School of Education and Social Work. Alternatively, agencies and organisations are invited to email our social work program coordinator directly.
For education student placements, please email our education program coordinator.
Our students undertake internships in various Australian and international museums and galleries that vary in size, collection type and museology, as well as related institutions including libraries, archives, auction houses, private corporations with collections, art lenders, museum and gallery organisations, or organisations that run art fairs, festivals, biennales and the like.
Hosts for Museum and Heritage Studies students also include heritage sites, heritage assessment and interpretation companies, government heritage offices, and heritage organisations and the like.
These internships are open to both Art Curating and Museum and Heritage Studies postgraduate students undertaking either a Masters or Graduate Diploma.
Please contact our placement officer to enquire about hosting an internship, or download our download our information pack (PDF, 388KB).
In our unique Social Justice Student Placements program (pdf, 110KB), we partner with industry to deliver vocational training beyond the classroom, providing students with an opportunity to make important contributions in the social justice sector.
In conjunction with our valued industry partners, we offer project-based, unpaid placements for credit within a structured academic program. Placements are 140 hours (about 20 days' full-time or equivalent part-time). Previous partners include: World Wildlife Fund, NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors, People With Disability Australia and Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation.
Please contact our internships officer to enquire about hosting an internship.
Testimonials
Appen is proud to have partnered with the University of Sydney since 2016. Their interns bring fresh perspective and energy to our workplace, helping to drive improvements in our processes and documentation. They enrich our team’s linguistic, language and technical knowledge with their insights, and the program helps us to identify great candidates for future employment opportunities.
- Judith Bishop, Director AI Specialists, APAC US
They are highly skilled students with strong interpersonal skills, and they are creative problem solvers with an ability to adapt and learn in our fast-paced environment.
- Sheree Thompson, KPMG
All of the students were cooperative, mature, responsible and intelligent in their approach to the internship during the interview process and induction. Their short presentations on their work at the Parliament were all very well researched and thought provoking.
- Jeannie Douglass, Manager Parliamentary Education, Parliament of New South Wales
We noticed during recruitment campaign that we didn't have a diverse pool of candidates - most applicants had business degrees. As a result, we decided to broaden our reach to students studying arts degrees in order to expand the expertise of our team.
- Eshan Motwani, Senior Associate, PwC
Contact us
Are you interested in learning more about student placement programs? Please contact us at fass.internships@sydney.edu.au and artss.careers@sydney.edu.au.
