Thomas McLean, a UWA Psychology student, spent 100 hours recently working on a project to help people who are digitally excluded in an increasingly digital world.
Thomas took part in the McCusker Centre for Citizenship internship program, lending his skills and expertise to the WA Council of Social Services (WACOSS) digital inclusion efforts.
“The project aims to help digitally excluded groups, such as people experiencing homelessness, the elderly, low-income earners and those living in remote communities,” Thomas said.
“It will help them by providing the means and education to use digital devices and platforms to enhance their lives and to keep up with the world’s digital shift,”
Working on a project addressing a rapidly changing issue posed its challenges.
“Due to the project being in its very early stages, it was a challenge to work towards end goals that were still becoming clear; the project was changing and evolving as cooperation with the community and stakeholders took place,” Thomas said.
“The most rewarding part of the internship was understanding that there is real potential for people to make a difference in the community, even on some of the most difficult social issues,"
Milan Vojnovic, Capability and Sustainability Lead with WACOSS, said the aptitude and diligence demonstrated by Thomas during his internship exceeded their expectations of an intern.
“Despite the challenges of new projects, Thomas managed to absorb all the contextual information in a short time and independently conceive ways to construct content that fit the objectives of the project,
“Thomas was trusted to work on the Access initiative of the WA Digital Inclusion Project, which involved mapping services relevant to digital inclusion in the community,
“Thomas showed great prowess, independence, and ingenuity in this task, and managed to map and categorise an extensive range of relevant services that will comprise our Digital Inclusion Database,” Milan said.
The impact of Thomas’ contributions to the project were appreciated across the broader WACOSS team, with Executive Manager of the WA Digital Inclusion Project, Richard Hayes, commending his efforts.
“Tom was a great advocate for community members in identifying how they could be supported through access to information,” he said.
“Tom’s engagement style consistently displayed a great deal of maturity and excellent listening skills, and he responded to feedback and was able to adapt to changes as project scope developed following initiation of the project,
“Tom’s work on presentations to our governance forum and the WACOSS team were of a very high standard, applied an engaging style and demonstrated his commitment to obtaining involvement in this initiative for the broader community,” Richard said.
“This was my first experience working with the McCusker program, and based on my experience working with Tom, I have developed a further understanding of the program, and would be happy to recommend participation to any organisation,”
Thomas’ involvement in the project was also acknowledged by WACOSS through his inclusion in a project update in the WACOSS sector newsletter.
Thomas found the internship gave him opportunities to develop new skills, while putting into practice some of the more practical life skills he had learned at UWA.
“The internship experience allows you to test out new skills that you learn and develop at university,” he said.
“It opened my eyes to how the skills I developed during my degree can be applied in the workplace,
“The research, critical analysis and writing skills I have developed during my degree enhanced my ability to contribute meaningfully to the project,”
Thomas said he would recommend an internship to other students.
“The internship will definitely help my professional life as it allowed me to develop skills such as research and presenting in a different environment to university,
“It also allowed me to network with and learn from some great people,”