Building international and
local student teams for successful WIL/service-learning coursework projects at
UTS.
By Lisa Andersen, Program Manager, UTS
Shopfront Community Program
For 11
years and 82 successful WIL/service-learning coursework projects, I have worked
with UTS Business School on the postgraduate Applied Management Consulting
subject where we have been particularly successful in mixing international and
local, and work experienced and non-work experienced students to form student
teams to deliver shared value for student learning and non-profit clients (with
a conservatively estimated pro bono value to the community sector now of more
than $2.5 million). Here’s a short description of our process.
The Applied Management Consulting subject in
the MBA program is an elective designed to resemble a typical consulting
engagement. Consultants need to form
projects for limited periods, build new relationships with colleagues and
clients, and assemble teams with communication, analysis, problem solving,
creative and innovation skills. The subject allows students to build
consulting skills through direct experiential team-learning, while the community client focus of the projects gives
student teams a purpose beyond their assessment, and helps to generate positive
engagement amongst team members.
The subject cohort consists of around 40
students each semester from a mixture of disciplinary backgrounds - including
information technology, communications, risk management, human resources,
finance management, operations and logistics. Typically there is a half-half
mix of international and local students, and no/limited workplace experience
and professionally experienced students. However, it is an essential
requirement that students have ‘working proficiency’ in English.
Block class sessions are scheduled over five
full days spread over 12 weeks to resemble typical project milestones in a
consulting project, with additional meetings and feedback taking place
throughout the semester. Student assignments are designed to replicate typical
consulting deliverables and volunteer professional management consultants (as
part of their own corporate social responsibility) are attached to teams as
coaches. Frequent faculty feedback from
maintains student motivation and responsiveness.
However, our experience has shown the process for
forming effective workgroups is critical for successful projects and team
experiences. During the first day
session, after introducing the course, students learn about each other, select
team leaders and build teams of five or six students. A range of activities helps to build social capital and create confident
groups. During a ‘speed dating’ coffee break students are asked to speed-talk
to all other students and learn as much about each
other as possible and then to self-select team leaders. The team leaders then
build their teams based on the range of skills needed in consulting and from
skills audit forms completed by each student. A catered lunch is supplied for students once teams are formed. During
lunch, teams get to know each other and negotiate a shortlist, and then pitch
for their preferred projects - from a list of ‘student ready’
community projects provided by UTS Shopfront - based on their skill set and
personal interests. Before their first client meeting, teams are
required to meet with their coach and prepare detailed resumes with a
consultancy name, photographs, backgrounds and skill set to present to their
client.
Evaluations and feedback from international
students has shown value in the opportunities to: work with a real client as a
professional and build their resumes; learn more about Australian workplace
culture and the community external to the university; and increase their
confidence in communicating in English.
As one international student commented:
‘As an
international student, I was not good at communicating in English. This was a
real opportunity for me. Also, it is not easy for an international student to
get working experience in Australia. There should be more of these kinds of
projects as they are beneficial to both students like me and the community.’
For some local
students - whose previous experiences of working in teams with varying skill levels
has lead to increased workload for them to deliver team assessment outcomes -
the team building and the support processes work. As described by two students:
‘The team selection process was positive - I wasn't sure
that we would have the opportunity to build a team that suited our strengths
but the nominated leader did this well. And I learnt more from being forced
into a cross functional team.’
‘At the very beginning, as the elected team
leader, I had some concern regarding the heterogeneity of the group. [Our
supervisors] were available to listen to the situation and offered some
guidance consistently throughout the project to ensure its completion in the
best possible condition.’
The university student feedback
survey and UTS Shopfront’s custom evaluation survey both demonstrate high levels of satisfaction with
the subject, and students consistently reflect on how they were professionally
and personally enriched by engaging with diverse people during the subject. As one student commented:
‘I learned to work with different people
(teammates) as well as grow in learning to empathise with others (clients and
teammates) with different perspectives and needs as compared to my own. This is
crucial professional development.’
While, finally, another international student insisted we
continue on this way:
Make sure that students are placed in a diverse
group. Same as our group where there
were 6 people from 6 different countries. This was really one of the best
experiences I had at UTS.
UTS Shopfront is the multi-award winning community engagement program at the
University of Technology Sydney. Since 1996 Shopfront has facilitated more than 1000 successful
projects being completed by UTS students as part of their disciplinary
coursework for more than 800 non-profit organisations, and an additional 70,000
hours of extra-curricular student volunteering in the community.
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