Hotglue

"We have had a wonderful experience with our placement student, Sophie Evans. She has been with us full time for a year now and has been able to fully immerse herself into the agency and team. Sophie came to us with strong critical thinking skills that set her up to maximise her learning.

Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen Sophie grow and fit into the team like any other employee. Whether it’s speaking to our directors, other account managers or clients, she’s found her voice within the agency.

Sophie has actively developed her relationships with the broader team by contributing to team building initiatives that have involved everyone in the agency. Sophie has provided invaluable support while helping us with the account management of some of our brands and has also been able to assist on content shoots both in our studio and off-site.

Having a student on board has also encouraged our team to reflect on their own knowledge and how best to share this with others in the future. Sophie has helped create a broader awareness of the agency in the wider media community.

She has done this through actively working on our agency social media accounts and regularly writing industry articles that give us a wider voice. Sophie’s brought a fresh perspective, arguably the youngest, which is very much needed in the social media industry!

In addition to this, there has been a level of staff professional development throughout Sophie’s placement. The program has allowed her mentor to fulfil more of a leadership role and develop her communication skills which has been a wonderful add-on to the experience."

"It’s important to place students in the industry to enhance their learning, they can take skills learnt in the classroom to practice in the media. Often a student’s first exposure to ‘on the job’ experience occurs in their graduate role, however we believe this experience should happen within the degree itself, as Swinburne does.

This makes each student more employable at the end of their degree as they have a breadth of practical knowledge they can refer to. It also prepares students to have the confidence to dive into a graduate role and have an active voice within the team from day one.

From day one, it has been a pleasure working with Swinburne and the Professional Placements team. From an on-site visit, to interviews, supervisor reviews and the wrap of our first placement – each step in the process has been straightforward and easy to implement.

Regular check ins with Sophie’s supervisor Anne ensured that both we and Sophie were on the same page with regards to her professional development and goals throughout the placement.

Both Nick Smith – our Co-Founder/Head of Digital – and myself recommend the program to others as it’s one of the only full time, mid-degree placements we have identified in Victoria. We hope to see the industry, on a wider level, begin to take on more full-time placements in the future and look forward to working with the Professional Placements team again."