Developing professionals: student experiences of a real-client project

Abstract

This study investigated the learning potential of the student experience of working with real clients in a final-year undergraduate unit that aims to develop professional skills. Students, working in consultancy teams, developed communication strategies for a not-for-profit organisation. A teaching intervention was trialled late in semester to promote the sharing of client-interaction experiences amongst student teams. Student worksheets were analysed to explore student perceptions of the challenges of the client project and their responses to those challenges. The findings revealed that assumptions cannot be made about the value of real-client projects and suggest that such learning activities need to be carefully structured to make the links between academic learning and professional development explicit and beneficial.

Keywords:

• client projects
• professional skills
• work-integrated learning

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the support provided by Professor Stephen Billett through the Australian Learning and Teaching Council's National Teaching Fellowship: Curriculum and pedagogic bases for effectively integrating practice-based experiences.