Chisholm Online’s Work Placement Coordinator Anne Kermeen is a senior member of the Student Engagement team. Having worked with many students to reach their potential, she now focusses her time purely on work placement; making it a streamline process for both the student and the work place. Anne explains her role in more detail here.

What is the purpose of your role? Can you describe what you do?

My role is firstly to ensure that any workplace environment meets WHS standards and is a suitable environment for our students to do their work placement.  I then act as the liason between the student and the workplace to ensure fluid communication and assist both the student and the workplace should any issues arise.
Secondly I play a pastoral role to students. I can assist students with sourcing work placement when a student is having trouble.  I can visit a potential workplace environment and discuss a student’s needs or just talk with students about anything that might be hindering them from completing the placement and look for solutions to help them.

Are students expected to find their own work place placement?  What assistance do you give?

Students are encouraged to find their own work placement. All students are given a student handbook which explains placement and where suitable placement can be found.
However if a student needs help with their work placement, I am the first point of call.  I can assist students seek out a workplace as well as help them liase with the prospective work place/centre too.

How do you help a student throughout their work placement? And what is the level of your involvement?

Once a student has sourced their work placement, I visit the centre prior to the student starting and talk with them about their responsibilities to the student and reinforce the student needs to meet their work placement requirements.  While the engagement team are generally the first point of call for students, I assist students should they have any concerns with their placement or with the workplace/centres who may wish to discuss a student.

What are your top 5 tips for students looking for work placement?

1. Make sure you have read the activities you need to complete before calling any centre.

2. Make sure any workplace environment is listed on the National Registers on the ACECQA website (Applicable for Diploma of Early Childhood and Care students only)​.

3. Be prepared to look outside of your postcode for a centre or workplace.

4. When you contact a workplace or centre, be organised with all the information you need to cover off so you can reference how many hours you need to do and if you need to complete specific activities.

5. Be patient. Be prepared to make a good number of calls to gain your placement.

For more information on work placement, contact Anne Kermeen via the Student Engagement Team on 1300 275 265.