Co-Designer & Facilitator, INTERCHANGE UTS
The Interchange 2015 Programme is a great example of intuitive intelligence training being integral to the implementation of entrepreneurial and technical upskilling. The Interchange Team set out to test and validate the collaborative model of training, as validated by the programme.
“Interchange is an action packed learning journey, designed to help you find your inner entrepreneur. 5 days, 5 universities and 200 international students from all subject areas together you’ll explore what your ideas are capable of achieving.
Interchange will take you through the innovation process, delve into design-thinking, sharpen your business acumen, improve your communication skills, teach you the art of storytelling, give you real life experience in solving real world problems, add value to your university studies, unleash your creativity, ideas and passions, and help you to shape a career that matters.
As an Interchanger you are expected to commit to all sessions, come with an open mind, work hard and be actively engaged with the Interchange tribe.”
THe INTERCHANGE PROGRAM
The Problem
Universities across Australia are having serious issues in retaining numbers of international students due to several factors (employability, changing immigration requirements, limited local networks, work experience, cultural barriers). Five of the leading NSW universities - UTS, University of Sydney, UNSW, University of Western Sydney and ACU - established Interchange, an entity formed as a joint effort to solve this overarching problem.
The Solution:
Create a complimentary training programme focused on entrepreneurialism, actionable teachings and real-world problems to empower, engage and retain international students. The programme was designed by international talent who have, in most cases, been exposed to the same limitations that current international students faced.
By taking this problem outside of the university (open innovation model), the programme could be designed using lean methodologies rather than traditional academic processes - making it reactive to ongoing feedback. Additionally, students received introspective upskilling including empathy training, skill mapping and interviewing/pitching skills which proved invaluable for the student cohort to put their new skills into practice. The biggest learning was that without the change in behavioural triggers, upskilling falls flat and old habits reappear.
The program included 5 full days of facilitation, a group assignment to solve a problem using their new learned skills, and culminated in a pitching night were teams would pitch for a prize and possible startup investment for their solution.
The Interchange 2015 Facilitators: Michelle Williams, Selena Griffith, Michael "Mikee" Kelly, CBL, Dr Ele Jansen, Avis Mulhall, Dane Murray, Jacqurline Wechsler.
CHALLENGE - DESIGNING for diversity
The biggest design challenge for Interchange was the intentional diversity of the participants. Being international students, each participant was bringing a set of cultural values and unique experiences into the program. Additionally, the faculties offering the program ranged from business degrees to pre-med, making the group even more diverse. We decided to embrace this diversity and bake it into the cake.
For starters, we focused on what the students had in common: they all wanted to a grasp at the possibility of staying in Australia; they also all had limited resources and networks in Sydney compared to those they had at home; most of the group also had learned English as a second or even third language. By building these commonalities into the facilitation - in the form of group formation, ice breakers and customer experience workshops- we were able to use the diversity in the room as a unifying value. By celebrating differences and showcasing them as valuable business assets, students were able to form bonds in a limited amount of time.
Graphic facilitation provided by Digital Storytellers.
CHALLENGE - MODULAR FACILITATION
The second challenge was the fact that we had a lot of ground to cover in a limited amount of time, all the while allowing time for students to work on their schoolwork and Interchange project. In order to tackle that, we decided to take a modular approach to the program.
The co-designers and facilitators met 3 weeks ahead of the program and mapped out the big learning milestones, goals and testing criteria for each segment. Then, we assigned each facilitator a portion of the program to develop along with a set of keywords and common terms (to ensure we were all speaking the same language.
As the sessions unfolded each Saturday, the lead facilitators and co-designers were able to get live feedback in the room - through surveys and visual queues - and we could decide to spend more time on a session if students were deeply engaged or needed reinforcing. Similarly, we would decide to change the order of sessions and scrap portions of them altogether - all in the best interest of the overall result.
VALIDATING THE EXPERIMENT
Interchange 2015 was a maiden voyage to the program and, as such, had both hiccups and triumphs. The biggest gap was the hardest to tackle: time. Students wanted more time to interact with facilitators and ask questions. They also wanted more time to work on their projects as a group since some of their team members did not go to their same university. The biggest triumph was the excellent feedback we got on the integrated facilitation. Being able to respond in real time to the needs of the group was a hard work but ultimately a gift.