CDEV3000 /6000 Practice of Work
Work directly with a partner organisation on a co-designed project. Applications are now open for Summer Term (January 2025).
With CDEV3000 Practice of Work / CDEV6000 Partnered Work Project you can interact directly with an organisation and gain practical project-based experience, taking your professional skills to the next level, all while earning 6 UOC.
This course has been designed to enable students to integrate theory with the practice of work. Students will learn about professional practice and develop their personal capabilities for lifelong learning and work. The course centres on engaging with external partners (e.g. industry, community, government) by working on real-world projects, under the guidance of academic and workplace supervisors. Academic supervisors aim to maximise the learning from these activities with specialised support.
Students work in inter-disciplinary teams in collaboration with their project partner and an academic project supervisor who assists in maximising learning and the quality of the project deliverables.
Summer Term 2025
The project will take place in person during Summer Term 2025 at the Kensington campus. Students are required to attend mandatory workshops and allocated team working sessions, led by a UNSW academic, each week during the intensive term. Classes will run from 9:30am to 4:30pm, Monday to Friday, from 13 January to 7 February.
During the allocated class time, students will also be required to periodically meet with representatives from the partner organisation to discuss, collaborate, and iterate their ideas and concepts. There are four projects available in Summer Term (January 2025) from the following industry partners: , , and  (see in detail below).Â
Applications for Summer Term close Wednesday, 6 November 2024.
Please note: Apply via InPlace and navigate to the CDEV Practice of Work link in the 'Available' section of the homepage
Summer Term 2025 partners and projects
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IBM brings together all the necessary technology and services to help their clients solve business problems. It integrates technology and expertise, providing infrastructure, software and consulting services for clients as they pursue the digital transformation of the world’s mission-critical businesses. IBM is always on the hunt for what’s next. Learn more about the group of more than 3,000 scientists and researchers around the globe who deeply believe in the power of the scientific method to invent at IBM Research. For example, the charge in quantum computing.
Project statement
Explore the use cases and benefits of Generative AI for Australian citizen services. Through comparative research and human-centered design, assess the desirability, value, feasibility, and ethics of implementing a Generative AI solution for these services.
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gategourmet was founded in Switzerland in 1992 to cater Swissair. Today they are a global company with the most comprehensive catering network in the aviation industry. gategourmet develop top-quality culinary concepts from menu design to execution and deliver consistent and standardised catering provisioning services, while ensuring on-time-performance to our airline customers and a memorable onboard experience for their passengers.
Project statement
gategourmet is a large multi-national food catering company. The Sydney unit is dynamic and has a diversified customers base and operations. The overarching goal of this project is to gain efficiency and improve delivery of world class services in the following key areas: service delivery, supply chain, food preparation and food production.
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OzHarvest is Australia's leading food rescue organisation, collecting quality excess food from commercial outlets and delivering it directly to charities supporting people in need across the country.
Project statement
Develop a framework to measure the social impacts of volunteering with OzHarvest, focusing on both community benefits and individual volunteer experiences.
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Street Sports Learning and Employment Pathway Program
Project Statement
This project enhances the existing Street Sports Program by adding a structured component focused on alternative education and employment pathways in event management. The initiative aims to provide underprivileged young people with practical training and learning opportunities in hospitality, media production, refereeing, and mentoring, creating soft entry points for youth who may otherwise have limited access to such skills.
Project Objectives
- Competency Framework Development:Â Map out essential competencies and skills needed for various roles in event management, such as hospitality, media production, and refereeing, and integrate these into a structured training curriculum.
- Partnership and Accreditation Plan: Outline a strategy for partnering with educational institutions and industry bodies to ensure the training is accredited and recognised by potential employers.
- Training Modules and Materials Creation: Develop comprehensive training modules and supporting materials that provide theoretical knowledge and practical skills relevant to the sports and event management industries.
- Promotional and Recruitment Strategy: Design a targeted promotional and recruitment strategy to attract underprivileged youth to the program, highlighting the learning and employment opportunities it offers.
- Implementation Blueprint: Compile all the planning, resources, partnerships, and frameworks into a detailed implementation blueprint, which will guide the subsequent delivery phase of the program.
Work Integrated Learning (WIL)
This course involves work learning experiences where students work directly in or with an industry or community organisation to gain real-world experience in preparation for a future career.
Please note that CDEV3000/6000 is not self-enrolled. Students will go through an interview process with WIL Central. Once successful, students will be enrolled by the WIL Central Team.
Please visit for more information.
Course highlights
- Work directly with a partner organisation on a co-designed project to provide the organisation with purposeful deliverables. 
- Develop skills in teamwork, project management, problem solving, design thinking and communication. 
- Work in interdisciplinary teams and gain understanding of how to work effectively with people from other disciplines and backgrounds. 
- Gain support on professional development through personal and professional reflection. 
- Develop skills in effective communication and become adept in collaboration in a multidisciplinary team environment. 
Course details
- Both courses offer a range of projects and are run throughout the year in Summer Term, Term 1, Term 2 and Term 3.
- Both courses are awarded 6 Units of Credit (UOC).
CDEV3000Â Practice of Work
- Available to undergraduate students.
- Can be taken as a General Education/Free Elective in some undergraduate degrees.
- Final Year Synthesis for Bachelor of Commerce students.
- Must have completed 30 UOC by course commencement.
CDEV6000Â Partnered Work Project
- Available to postgraduate students.
- Can be taken as a Free Elective in some postgraduate degrees.
Previous partner projects
Partner projects previously offered through CDEV3000/CDEV6000:
- - Re-Imagining IBM's Graduate Experience
- -Â Social Impact Measurements for Customer-Facing Venues
- -Â Emerging Technology on tax services delivery
- -Â Impact of COVID-19 to Higher Education
- -Â One Company, Two Systems
- -Â Inter-generation Engagement
- -Â Re-energising the ASL brand
- -Â Reaching out with social media to engage new fans of football
- -Â Making another stride in social impact
- - Engagement Tool for understanding and anticipating community needs
- -Â International Health, Volunteers and Soft Power Diplomacy
- -Â Measuring effective climate change outreach for NSW young adults
- -Â Exploring the contribution of heritage items and areas to the economy
- - Developing a Data-Driven Home Loan Origination Scorecard
- -Â Developing a Museum Education Centre
- -Â A Museum's Commitment To Positive Climate ActionÂ
- -Â Sustainability Design Initiatives for Laboratories and Cleanroom Facilities
- -Â Remote Area Telecommunications
- UnionPay -Â UnionPay Co-Brand Card Product Design Project
- -Â Realized Volatility Prediction
- -Â Chassis topology optimisation
Previous partner projects in detail
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The IBM Client Engineering team is changing the way IBM engages with clients through showcasing at speed the business value and technical feasibility of technology solutions.
In Australia and New Zealand our team has grown from 8 people in early 2021 to 31 team members by the end of 2022. As the team expands, we want to attract top talent and specifically attract and deliver a great experience for early professionals. We would like your help to re-imagine our internship and graduate experience for IBM Client Engineering. The focus is on designing the content and structure of the early professional programs with human-centred design rather than marketing.
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OzHarvest are Australia's leading food rescue organisation. We work closely with our food donors and our recipient agencies (charities) to ensure we are rescuing as much food as possible from going into landfill, and directing it to people in need.
We are currently very reactionary in our communication with both our food donors and recipient agencies, and we believe a more proactive form of regular and positive communication will help improve engagement and understanding of OzHarvest, our cause and our processes.
We wish to improve/expand upon our existing methods of communication by developing a new form of monthly or quarterly newsletter designed specifically for our food donors and recipient agencies. This state specific newsletter will help OzHarvest proactively increase engagement and understanding from both key stakeholders by sharing positive feedback of the work we do and reinforcing requirements from both stakeholders.
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The Australian National Maritime Museum specialises in the exhibition of the country's unique maritime heritage and the connection the Australian people have with the oceans, rivers, and lakes that surround them.
The museum is looking for new ways to attract young people, particularly students interested in STEM, to come to the museum and engage with their spaces. This will include developing ideas and practical outcomes for how and where they might build a dedicated STEM space in the museum. This could mean utilising existing rooms within the museum or even creating a new space such as a floating laboratory.
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The Powerhouse Museum is a world renown institution that presents exhibitions and programs that support the applied arts, applied sciences and creative industries.
Taking a leadership position on sustainability and positive climate action is central to the Powerhouse's renewal. The Powerhouse Climate Action Plan (2022-2025) focuses on Powerhouse infrastructure, programs and operations outlining the important immediate actions that will embed sustainability across the organisation.
Powerhouse is looking for ideas, strategies, and recommendations on communicating the climate action and sustainability commitments of their organisation, providing an opportunity to facilitate relationships between their audiences and positive climate action.
Students share their experience
As an international student it is difficult to secure internships. CDEV3000 allowed me to gain practical work experience with industry partners that align with my career aspirations....and helped me develop valuable employability skills.
Some of the employability skills I have gained in this course are problem solving, team work, visual design and presentation skills. CDEV6000 offers practical experience like no other course does and teachers important job skills.