The Assistant in Medicine (AIM) program at Central Coast Clinical School allows fifth year medical students to gain practical, paid experience in a clinical setting. Developed and led by Dr Hemal Patel, the program has grown from a COVID surge response, to a highly valued learning experience.

Hemal’s leadership has enabled a student experience that allows for work-life-study balance as he matches the availability of participants to the operational needs of the hospital. He is also an advocate for students, ensures that supervision and support is in place, and encourages professional mentor relationships.

Now in its third year, the program has provided a talent pipeline for the Central Coast Health District as over half of past participants have returned for ongoing employment following completion.

They learn the soft skills, the hidden curriculum that you can’t learn in books. It’s the stuff that you can’t read or look up on a resource. You’ve just go to be there to learn to be confident and competent in the space.

~ Dr Hemal Patel

Kim Maund and Cameron Beard pioneered a Work Integrated Learning (WIL) course that engaged Construction Management and Architecture students with the skills needed to connect with clients, practitioners and the broader construction industry.

Drawing on their extensive industry connections and partnership with TAFE, Kim and Cameron’s WIL course allowed students to deepen their understanding of the end-to-end development cycle. Among a variety of applied activities, students engaged with a ‘Cubby House’ project which developed their practical skills and the finished dwellings were then gifted to a local Women and Children’s Refuge in Newcastle.

The initiative received high praise from all stakeholders and is an excellent demonstration of the positive potential of Work Integrated Learning for our students, community and industry partners.

We know how important theory into context is for learning, and this experience brought elements together and enabled students to engage with a broad range of industry stakeholders.

~ Dr Kim Maund

This year, Meegan McHugh co-ordinated the team that implemented the University’s new Learning Management System, CANVAS. Given the scale of work ahead, Meegan engaged a team of 28 students as casual staff in support and soon found the benefits of this approach extended beyond the project’s successful launch.

Establishing a genuine partnership with her new casual staff, Meegan invited input on course site design to ensure that the user experience met the needs of the student cohort. She also challenged her student team members to take on work tasks that were new or challenging so that their work could be seen as an opportunity for personal and professional growth.

Meegan has said that a highlight of the project has been watching the students grow in confidence in their employable skills and use the experience to test their career plans.

They went from wide eyed and intimidated at the thought of engaging with academic staff to system specialists who were comfortable advising staff across the institution.

~ Ms Meegan McHugh

Since 2020, Peter Gogarty has managed the Bridge of Hope Innocence Initiative Newcastle (BOHIIN), which provides students with an immersive experience of dealing with criminal justice matters.

Over the past two and a half years, Peter’s guidance has enabled the BOHIIN to grow its focus from research into miscarriage of justice, to now include work on missing persons, cold cases, death classification errors, policy issues, and special research topics. In addition to Criminology and Law, students from across the academic spectrum contribute their investigative, research and discipline-specific skills to cases that prioritise ‘fairness’ for people interacting with the criminal justice system.

This unique multi-disciplinary approach has fostered relationships with relevant professionals and agencies, both in Australia and worldwide, in addition to developing the professional skills of participating students.

My focus on students is about treating them as colleagues.Everything they do is about treating them in a professional way and giving them the chance to apply their learning in the real world.

~ Mr Peter Gogarty

Saskia Behan’s passion for providing support to women and children escaping domestic violence through Jenny’s Place is extraordinary. She applies her dedication and expertise to the benefit of clients and her Master of Psychology students, who gain the opportunity to develop their critical trauma-informed psychological support skills.

Having developed and implemented the Jenny’s Place Work Integrated Learning Program, Saskia has received widespread praise for her commitment to developing students’ counselling and case management skills. The care that she provides to her students ensures they are well-supported within an often challenging field.

Under Saskia’s guidance, the success of the Jenny’s Place partnership with the School of Psychological Sciences has now been recognised through a four-year plan to further expand the program.

It is lovely to be able to walk this path with students. These early groups have been exposed to the program’s development which has helped develop a sense of ownership as well as a space to grow critical case management skills.

~ Mrs Saskia Behan