ECU students Ethan Culff and Aryana Eraman in the IBM offices.
Who wouldn't want the chance to earn while they learn?
Or to graduate, knowing you've secured a job from day one?
ECU and IBM have created this opportunity through a paid internship program where students get to put theory into practice by working with IBM staff and some of their corporate clients.
The program focusses on current and emerging high demand skills that are important to Western Australia's growing digital economy.
Think user experience designers, software engineers, data scientists, mobile application developers and project managers.
The program isn't just about addressing skills gaps in industries – it also has the potential to increase diversity within the IT industry.
That means attracting more female, Indigenous, LGBTQI+ and neurodiverse graduates into the field.
Something ECU has always strongly advocated for.
Degrees in demand
Students taking up the internship have been studying a range of ECU courses, including bachelor's degrees in:
- Computer Science or IT
- Arts or Design
- Commerce, including Project Management major
Some have been studying master's degrees in Data Science and Design.
These students aren't afraid of hard work, know how to communicate with colleagues and clients and have taken advantage of the opportunities provided to them by ECU.
Afterall, every day they're working at IBM they're making a case for their future employment prospects!
Meet Aryana and Ethan
Aryana Eraman and Ethan Culff are two ECU students who have participated in the internship program.
Aryana studied Design specialising in User Experience (or UX) Design, while Ethan's Commerce degree major was Project Management.
According to Aryana, having real life clients (at IBM) was one of the most valuable educational aspects of her university experience.
Read more about Aryana’s experience or Ethan’s internship.
The official partnership launch
To learn more about this exciting industry collaboration, watch this 2-minute video that was produced to launch the program.
A ground-breaking partnership between ECU and IBM (2 min 20 sec).
