Work Placements Directory

sarahwhite's picture
Submitted by sarahwhite on 13 October 2009 - 12:17pm
What's this idea about?
In less than 100 words, what is your idea?: 
This idea is for an online directory of work placement opportunities for community services organisations, which include not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises. The site could promote work placement opportunities offered as part of formal courses of study, or expanded to general informal work experience opportunities as well. The initial project could be piloted for community services organisations in Queensland. Industry organisations, work placement students, and educational institutions can each have a user profile for networking before, during, and after work placements. The site could also include support resources for the student and the organisation. The primary focus of the site would be relationship-building for community services sector work placements.
What is the social need or challenge your idea could address?: 
Work placement initiatives allow students to gain industry experience as part of their course of study and require a partnership between the educational institution, the industry host, and the student. Many community services organisations do not have the time to research available work placement opportunities or access or develop resources to support work placement students. Yet, work placements constitute an effective workforce development strategy which is important for the long-term sustainability of the community services workforce. The community services sectors are in a period of continued rapid growth with demand for services on the increase, particularly with the prospect of a continued global economic downturn. This site would make it much easier for students to gain a range of skills and experiences in community services organisations while still completing their studies, through either formal work placements or informal work experience.
What’s really new about your idea?: 
There is no single online platform to connect up work placement candidates, educational institutions, and industry organisations to form partnerships for work placements. Work placements are often arranged in an ad hoc way in the community services sectors in Queensland, with many organisations unaware of available work placement opportunities in their local area, or the benefits of participation. The site would also offer networking and promotional opportunities for all users, including promoting better networking between educational institutions and their work placement programs and individual community services organisations. Site advertising by industry stakeholders and sponsorship might provide revenue for the site.
Stage of development
What inspired you to come up with your idea in the first place?: 
The Health and Community Services Workforce Council recently attended the Griffith University Humanities Industry Placement (HIP) Expo in Brisbane to meet with potential work placement students from the Bachelor of Arts (Humanities) program. The Griffith HIP program is for Humanities students enrolled in the Social Enterprise stream and aims to give them industry experience as part of their degree. The quality of work placement candidates we met at the Expo was outstanding. Yet, it can be difficult for community services organisations to know where to go for information about potential work placement opportunities. Work placement schemes often have limited resources for promotion. For educational institutions, host organisations can be difficult to secure. Work placement schemes such as the Griffith HIP program allow community services organisations to promote work in their sectors, while offering young people in particular the chance to share their skills, ideas, and experience.
From 1-5, what stage of development would you say your idea is in? - Explain further: 
1
What can we do for you?
Select which are the one or two most important things that you need to help the development of your idea: 
Developer - to help you create your software
Mentor - to help you through the process of turning your idea into reality
If Social Innovation Camp is able to help push your idea forward, do you have the time or desire to take ownership of it?: 
Yes
Anything else you want to tell us?: 
The Workforce Innovation Centre at the Workforce Council would be interested in developing this idea further with support through the Social Innovation Camp process.
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Humanise's picture

Implementation methods for Work Placements Directory

by Humanise - 30 Jan 2010 - 4:11am
I have created a blog detailing some methods that allow the Internet Implementation of this idea. The blog is called 'Implementation Options for some Social Innovation Camp Ideas'. It is available at the following address: http://asix.org.au/content/implementation-options-some-social-innovation... It should be noted that all the following ideas have some similarity in their required implementation tasks: 2 Bob's Worth Fancy a match? Can I borrow a.... Develop a car pooling database package for local councils Work experience for the disadvantaged Work Placements Directory Community toolshed online Digs for the disadvantaged My blog starts with implementation ideas that are very specific to the task, allowing the task to be easily implemented without needing specialist skills or programmers, and then progresses to those that give a lot more flexibility but need more skills to implement. If anyone wants to try out the first and easiest option then they can contact me and I will setup an installation where you can try it out.
Ozziemedes's picture

Re: Work Placements Directory

by Ozziemedes - 27 Jan 2010 - 7:28pm
Is this really a new idea? Isn't this something that many of the JobSearch providers are already trying to achieve?
glenm's picture

Re: Work Placements Directory

by glenm - 20 Jan 2010 - 3:23pm
This proposal seems to address a genuine problem students face in regards to seeking work placement opportunities. However, in order for this site to be truly innovative, it must distinguish itself from the basic job recruitment website or internship program offered within universities. What are some of the resources that this program will provide to students? Will there be workshops to train young students? Will there be opportunities for students and organizations to meet face to face, such as a job convention? Or, will this site rely on online social networking? Essentially, how will this site allow students and organizations to connect?
sarahwhite's picture

Re: Work Placements Directory

by sarahwhite - 1 Feb 2010 - 12:18pm
Hmmm, since I originally posted this up I've had some more thoughts about how it might work. I am now thinking perhaps a simple directory of health and community services organisations and their contact details is a better overall framework for it. Built into each entry for the organisation could be a range of options or tick boxes where the organisation can input information. It would be like a yellow pages for health and community services which could accommodate free basic and paid 'premium' listings for revenue but also contain relevant data for individuals and other industry stakeholders looking to connect with these services. For example, all free listings could contain a check box for whether the organisation (or a branch of it) offers work placements, and what kind - ie: vocational / TAFE students, university students, professional or clinical placements, volunteer placements, work experience placements, staff exchanges, etc. That way universities or TAFEs looking to place their students as part of their educational program could simply search the site and generate a list of contacts they can follow up to place students. This may be an additional tool to their current processes or may eventually replace current processes of finding placements. It would also give all health and community stakeholders a means of advertising and promoting their services for clients needing assistance and for people seeking a career, industry experience or training, or to engage with the service for another reason. Services could also have check boxes for the kinds of funding they receive, particular programs and services they deliver, and other info. To my knowledge there is no comparable directory of health and community services organisations - and none that offer such detailed workforce and service information. These sectors face many workforce issues and often do not have sufficient resources to promote themselves to clients and also potential future workers (career promotion). There could be certain controls on the site so that organisations did not get flooded with info or contacts they did not want - ie: the use of online forms instead of direct emails to register interest in work placements, volunteering, etc etc. There could be embedded links to other sites as well such as volunteering organisations (ie: Volunteering Queensland already has a Skills Bank on their website to match up volunteers with host organisations). Many small regional community organisations are practically off the map in terms of visibility through promotions and advertising. Just some more ideas! I personally would like to have access to this directory as it would make my job so much easier (and the jobs of many other stakeholders I am already aware of)...
totocol's picture

Re: Work Placements Directory

by totocol - 4 Nov 2009 - 10:03am
I have seen this type of model work very well in the French system where a greater importance is given to the work experience that students could gain before going to the job market. I can also see potential in the benefits that community organisations could gain from such web tool.

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