Business School
Career Accelerator Part One - Accelerate your career and get experience while studying
By Vicky Simao
26/8/2020
Zoom your hands up if you’ve ever thought:
“How can I get industry experience before I graduate?”
““How does what I’m studying relate to what’s happening in the workforce?"
“How can I upskill on stuff outside of what I’m studying in my degree?”
If you’re a UNSW Business School student, there is one answer to all these questions: Career Accelerator.
What’s Career Accelerator – and why should I know about it?
Career Accelerator (CA) is exclusive to UNSW Business School students and provides students with opportunities to engage in business-aligned industry experiences. All these experiences are there to help boost your employability - a set of skills, knowledge and experiences that enable you to transition successfully into the workforce.
How to get started
If this is the first time you’ve found out about Career Accelerator – fear not. You can get started on something right after you read this blog. The first place to start is our CA: Essentials module. This online module takes around 20 minutes to complete and unlocks your eligibility to apply for CA courses and programs. You’ll even get a snappy digital badge to flash on your LinkedIn page!
Getting experience at any time in your degree
Whether you’re a first year with only a few UoC under your belt, or a third year full-up on electives and little space to spare, Career Accelerator’s got you covered with a range of industry networking events and projects, alongside access to career mentoring.
Network (and learn from) industry professionals
Online or on campus, we run our Industry Insights workshops every Term. These sessions are hosted by an industry partner, who talks on a trending topic in their industry. They’re open to all UNSW Business School students and there’s no limit to how many you can go toattend!
During Flexi Week, CA also hosts an Industry Extra workshop. This is a skill-based masterclass, which is followed by an industry panel on the skill-up topic and an open Q&A.
Meet a career mentor
Once you’ve snapped up your CA: Essentials, you’ll have immediate access to Mentor Connect. This is an online platform where you can have one-off chats with an AGSM MBA student mentor. You have access to Mentor Connect at any stage of your degree.
If you’re heading towards your penultimate to final year, you’ll be eligible to apply for our Career Mentoring Program. This is a structured longer-term program, that connects UNSW Business students with an experienced industry mentor to provide one-on-one advice and guidance to support your career development.
Getting an internship (for-credit!)
Nerdy fact: CA internships are classified as Work Integrated Learning (WIL). This means that they’re for-credit courses that are meaningfully aligned with your studies – giving you the chance to put your theory into practice.
Career Accelerator has a range of internship programs available to students – and their team does all the hard work of finding suitable industry partners and placements.
If you’re interested in local internships, check out: COMM2222: Industry Experience Program, COMM2233: Industry Consulting Project and COMM3030 Social Entrepreneurship Practicums. You can even source your own internship and see if it is eligible for-credit by submitting a COMM2222: Self Sourced checklist.
If you’re seeking global business experience, the COMM3030: Global Business Practicum is the match for you! Despite COVID-19 travel bans, these have continued in 2020, with students working ‘glocally’ with industry mentors on their projects.
And if you’re looking at getting hands-on tax experience, check out TABL3033: Tax Clinic.
Industry projects
If you’re looking for a short stint to skill-up and try something new, CA has a diverse range of short-term business projects available. These run for around 25-hours across 2 weeks, where you will work in multidisciplinary UNSW Business student teams on an assigned project for an industry client. These can all be done online and are a fantastic way to stretch and build your skillset. The best part? You can do more than one (just not all at once!)
Skill-up and flex your soft skills
As a UNSW Business School student, you not only have access to all Career Accelerator has to offer, but to free access to LinkedIn Learning, online virtual internships, Excel Certification and Training and … incredible skill-ups and industry events via UNSW Business clubs and societies!
Career Accelerator works closely with all 25 affiliated clubs and societies, who do their fair share of career development and industry engagement.
Our student community are our workmates of the future. The shared experiences we have at university could play a bigger role in your future than you could ever imagine!
Find out more about Career Accelerator on their website and keep posted for upcoming industry events, experiences and program updates via the fortnightly Career Accelerator newsletters in Term 3.