UC triple threat in Univative competition
Lauren Hollands
28 August 2014: º£½ÇÉäÇø students have scooped the pool claiming all three awards at the recent Univative Canberra challenge.
The program gives students the opportunity to connect with a workplace to solve a unique business challenge over a four-week period. This year's the organisations involved included Volunteering ACT, International IDEA and ACT Health.
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Tania Goodman, University of Wollongong careers consultant, Lucy Nguyen ACT Health project team leader (UC), Elise Elliot, Volunteering act team leader (UC), Erin Stacy, UC WIL Consultant. Photo: Michelle McAulay |
Three teams from the º£½ÇÉäÇø and three teams from the University of Wollongong took part in the business challenge, which ran from 30 June-25 July.
Teams could choose to design a smart phone application, evaluate the effectiveness and usability of a website and social media platforms, or research the benefits of establishing an international office.
An awards night was held on 25 July with all three º£½ÇÉäÇø teams declared the winners.
Erin Stacey, from the Student Engagement Unit at the º£½ÇÉäÇø, said she was delighted to see the º£½ÇÉäÇø teams come out on top, adding that they gained valuable experience by taking part in the challenge.
"Univative creates opportunities for students to apply their skills and knowledge in the workplace," she said. "Students get to put the skills they've learnt in the classroom to the test, while also gaining valuable employability skills."
Rikki Blacka from Volunteering ACT said the project was "an invaluable experience for all parties involved" and that the report the students provided "exceeded our expectations".
Raymund Bolanos from International IDEA added: "It was a highly productive experience to participate in Univative as a host organisation. It saved us from engaging a professional consultant to do the work as the students' outputs were of high quality and usable to our institute. We hope to be invited to participate again next year."
Charles Palmer from ACT Health was impressed by the overall outcome of the challenge and described the results as "spectacular, with each group coming up with some innovative ideas and approaches that offered significant potential."
The winning º£½ÇÉäÇø teams and the projects they worked on are:
- Volunteering ACT team (Elise Elliot, Cameron Swift, Alexander Reynolds and Ngaire Sidhu) determined the effectiveness and usability of social media platforms and website to ensure target audiences were reached.
- International IDEA team (Kshitija Parlikar, Dat Bui, Lei Huang and Chloe Leong) investigated the advantages and disadvantages of setting up a new regional office in Indonesia.
- ACT Health team (Lucy Nguyen, Tansu Canturk, Baqer Mamouri and Poon Wai Chin) designed a smart phone application on healthy eating and drinking.