MQBS trials in-curriculum virtual work experience

COVID-19 has caused plenty of disruptions for students, with accessing real world work experience being one of the many causalities along the way.

Forage bridges a criticalgap by providing a platform that allows organisations to bring real-world career experience to students through bite-sized virtual experience programs. More than 1,000,000 students globally enrolled in a Forage experience during 2020, with this trend set to continue in 2021 and beyond.

Professor Eric Knight (Executive Dean, Macquarie Business School) says Forage will help students experience real roles and tasks in various industries before entering the workforce “COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the way our students are currently learning and experiencing university life. By partnering with Forage, we are ensuring that our students are not missing out on key opportunities that will assist a student's employability once they graduate from Macquarie Business School.” Professor Knight says that based on student feedback, this program may be rolled out widely across the Business School.

Leading global companies like Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Microsoft and Citibank have developed interactive virtual internships as training programs with simulations of real job roles. Forage enables organisations to showcase their people, work and culture to students in a way they have never been able to before as thousands of students are able to experience these unique work environments.

Each virtual experience program takes about 6-7 hours to complete and has been organised as a self-paced online learning experience – allowing students to complete the program at their own convenience be that midday or midnight!

Student employability will always be a key priority for MQBS and while COVID-19 has made it difficult for students to access onsite work experience, partnering with Forage means that students are able to experience working at leading organisations in a post-COVID world as they complete their virtual experience program and tasks online just like many employees globally are having to do now.

Forage has also seen instances where employers who create the Forage virtual work experience programs have hired students who have completed their internships. Therefore, Forage provides a great a great opportunity to students to showcase themselves and get their foot in the door of leading global organisations.

Below is the list of courses that will be taken part in the Session 1 trial. For any student’s taking part in the trial, we eagerly wait for your feedback as it will help shape any future rollout of the program within the Business School:

Courses:

Master of Accounting

https://coursehandbook.mq.edu.au/2021/courses/C000061

Master of Professional Accounting

https://coursehandbook.mq.edu.au/2021/courses/C000083

Units:

1.        ACCG6011 Principles of Accounting https://coursehandbook.mq.edu.au/2021/units/ACCG6011
2.        ACCG8124 Taxation Law https://coursehandbook.mq.edu.au/2021/units/ACCG8124
3.        ACCG8150 Contemporary Accounting Practice https://coursehandbook.mq.edu.au/2021/units/ACCG8150

Courses:

Master of Banking and Finance

https://coursehandbook.mq.edu.au/2021/courses/C000101

Master of Finance

https://coursehandbook.mq.edu.au/2021/courses/C000194