Professional Career Ready Placement

Is there a business or an organisation which you’d like to work for in the future? If so, you can reach out to them and ask if they are interested in hosting you as a placement student.

This option allows you to tailor your placement to fit your personal career plans and interests. It’s a good idea to start a few months prior to your targeted placement start date, and you’re welcome to run your ideas past the HASS3010 course coordinator. Also, keep in mind that you’re not confined to our local area, you can try to find a placement close to where you live or complete a virtual placement. Depending on your circumstances, undertaking a placement in Sydney, the Central Coast or the Upper Hunter or even further away are all possible options. You can also use your current workplace as placement provider if the work you do is relevant to your area of study.

Once you’ve secured your placement host, you must enrol in the course to gain access to the course canvas site and the universities' online professional placement portal. You need to get your placement registered and approved before you can start placement.

More information will be available in the Course Outline and on Canvas. If you need assistance developing your application documents visit UON’s Career Service page.

To support our students, we’ve negotiated a range of placement opportunities at businesses and organisations in our region.

To apply for one of the pre-negotiated roles, you need to enrol in HASS3010 and take part in the preferencing process during the first four weeks of the semester.

Once the semester is underway, students will be able to view a range of placement opportunities via the universities' career ready placement portal and select up to five preferences by the end of week 2. During week 3 and 4 the HASS3010 academics will liaise with students and placement hosts and allocate students to available placements. Please be aware that there is no guarantee that all students will secure a placement.

The preferencing process requires that you submit a professional development plan and your CV. Please take extra care with these as your documents may be shared with our external placement hosts.

You can also use recent (paid/unpaid) work experiences to count towards your compulsory 140 hours of placement if the work experience is:

• Less than 18 months ago from the start of the course, and
• Relevant to your area of study

You to enrol in HASS3010 and apply via the universities' career ready placement portal to get your placement hours reduced or waived. If you get a partial waiver approved, you will still need to complete a placement for the remaining hours.

Students who get their placement hours waived (partially or full) need to pass all other course requirements to pass the course.

Students can also complete their placement overseas using one of the universities' approved third-party providers who will assist with the planning and organisation of international placements.

Securing an overseas placement, completing all the relevant paperwork, and getting the placement registered and approved usually takes between 2-3 months. Thus, students should plan to do their placement AFTER the semester they are enrolled in.

Please visit the Global Experience website (log in required) for some more information about global placement options, financial support options, as well as health and travel requirements. Note that only global experiences listed under "Placement/WIL/Career Ready Placement" can be counted towards placement.

If you want to organise your own placement, you just need to reach out to your ideal placement host and ask them if they’re interested in taking you on as a placement student for the equivalent of four weeks.

Try to indicate why you’ve chosen to contact them and make sure to attach your up-to-date CV. We find that many organisations in our local community are willing to help, however, you may have to contact a number of organisations before you find a placement.

Once you have organised a placement, it’s time to enrol in the course so you can access the course canvas site and the universities placement portal to complete the course requirements and get your placement registered and approved.

If you have difficulties with the professional placement portal, please contact the Professional Experience team.

Students must cover the course cost of HASS3010 (10 units), but domestic placements are usually free of additional expenses.

Should additional costs be involved, students must meet costs incurred for their experience including payment to an external provider, institution or company if applicable.

Students experiencing financial hardship may be able to access Student Placement Grants to meet certain expenses.

Yes. The course handbook for HASS3010 lists specifics. You will need to prepare a professional development plan and after completing the placement, submit a reflective work placement journal and provide a verbal presentation on the work undertaken while on placement.

The placement must provide a genuine workplace experience relevant to your studies, and it’s important that the host is able to provide supervision and support.

If you are unsure about whether a particular placement opportunity is suitable, please contact the course coordinator for clarification at hciss-placement@newcastle.edu.au.

Students can use their current or past work experiences (paid/unpaid) to count as/towards their placement hours if the work experiences are relevant to the student’s specific program and discipline. All applications will be reviewed and require approval; if approved, students still need to complete all HASS3010 course requirements to pass the course.

• Current work can get approved as placement host, so student complete the placement hours as part of their ongoing employment or volunteer work.
• Past work experiences can be used to get placement hours waived or reduced by submitting a waiver request including evidence of the work experiences and sign off from past supervisor (pending approval).