Adelaide Graduate Award reaches Milestone in 2021
This year marks a milestone for the Adelaide Graduate Award, with over 1,100 students achieving the Award since the program was first piloted in 2017.
In 2021, 370 students have achieved the Adelaide Graduate Award. Our 2021 Award recipients contributed over 29,000 hours of volunteering, and over 72,000 hours of paid work and professional development alongside their degree.
The Adelaide Graduate Award, a free co-curricular experiential learning program available to all University of Adelaide students, was established to encourage students to gain experience alongside their studies and complements the skills that students develop through the curriculum by providing a framework for development of employability skills gained from extra-curricular experiences.
Cassandra Ackerman, a 2021 Award recipient and recent Bachelor of Media graduate, is currently working as a Marketing Coordinator at the Adelaide Festival Centre. Cassandra was actively involved in extra-curricular experiences alongside her degree. She volunteered on-campus in various roles through the University Volunteer Program, participated in Global IQ Connect, volunteered at the Adelaide Festival Centre, and worked part-time for a market research firm.
Cassandra believes students should be “proactively involved in employability initiatives” during their time at University:
“It’s not just about going to class and learning about the theory. It’s an opportunity, a gateway for you to do other things and make sure that you’re doing practical things to apply that theory alongside your studies.”
Cassandra Ackerman
In addition to extra-curricular activities, Cassandra also took the opportunity to complete an internship with the Adelaide Festival as part of the coursework for her degree.
“I think it's really important to consider doing an internship during your degree, it's an opportunity to try something new, to gain hands-on experience, and you will meet people and do things which will end up being valuable for you in the future."
"My internship directly relates to what I'm doing now. The actual work that I did was very similar to my job now. It built a foundation for my current role, but it also connected me to the right people, so that opened a bit of a gateway into securing the job I'm in now.”
Gaining work and volunteering experience while studying, either through an internship or alongside their degree through co- and extra-curricular activities, often provides students an advantage when looking for graduate employment. Employers value experience as well as the technical and transferable skills graduates develop through their degrees.
Further information about the range of employability initiatives that students can get involved in at the University of Adelaide is available on our Employability website.
Resources to promote the Adelaide Graduate Award to students can be downloaded from the Adelaide Graduate Award website and if you have any questions about the program please feel free to contact graduateaward@adelaide.edu.au