Spotlight on… PACE in the Faculty of Human Sciences

Human Sciences PACE team photo

The Faculty of Human Sciences PACE team (l-r) Jenny Stafford; Annabel McConnachie; Linda Barach; Kath McLachlan; and Kerry Lancaster. Absent: Emma Bromley

‘Spotlight on…’ is our way of showcasing different teams across campus to increase engagement, cohesion and an understanding of who does what at Macquarie. This week, we talk to the PACE team from the Faculty of Human Sciences.

What is PACE?
PACE (Professional and Community Engagement) is an award-winning, university wide initiative that offers our undergraduate students the opportunity to complete work experience in their chosen field before they graduate. PACE is about enhancing the employability of all our students and creating engaged citizens.
Every undergraduate student is required to complete a PACE unit, which includes academic study and a placement or work integrated learning project. PACE students put the theory they have learned into practice in the ‘real’ world. Our PSY399 PACE unit convenor Wayne Warburton describes PACE as allowing MQ students to “road-test their dreams”.

What do you do?
We work with both partners and students to arrange a great variety of placements for the students in the Faculty of Human Sciences. We look after students from Psychology, Linguistics, Health, Cognitive Science, Speech and Hearing and other majors under the Bachelor of Human Sciences. We need to ensure that the placements we offer are mutually beneficial for both the partner and student. The team works collaboratively with the PACE teams in the other faculties and with the central PACE ‘hub’ team.

Why do you do it?
This is a very rewarding job role. We are able to place students into organisations where they are making a difference in the lives of people in real need. It is also a privilege to play a part assisting students take the first steps in their chosen careers. PACE is making a real difference to the employment opportunities for our students, bridging the gap between their academic studies and the application of that learning. PACE also provides an opportunity, particularly for students who may not have had much experience in the workforce, to develop some of the soft skills required to be successful in their future careers, such as communication, team work, problem-solving and critical thinking.

Who do you most frequently work with?
On any given day we will be working with external partners, students and MQ colleagues. Partners can be spilt into two main areas: internal and external partners. Our internal partners may be academics who host students on research placements or professional staff who supervise students on a range of projects that contribute to the university. Our external partners are any organisation outside of MQ that would like to host PACE students and can include corporates such as Johnson & Johnson, not-for profits such as the Benevolent Society, government agencies, and other community and welfare organisations. We also work closely with the unit convenors of each PACE unit as well as other colleagues both within PACE and in other areas of MQ such as Corporate Engagement, Research, Careers, Campus Wellbeing, Advancement, and more.

What’s a recent achievement you’re proud of?
The annual PACE awards were held last week (8 August) and we’re extremely proud of all the recipients. These awards recognise and reward students for outstanding achievement in a PACE activity. We truly do have so many fabulous students doing amazing things.

We are also really proud of the wonderful work our Psychology students do with Blue Dragon in Vietnam.

Additionally, we are proud of the great relationship that we have with the Raise Foundation, an organisation that offers mentoring to young people at risk of disengaging. Raise offer mentorship training to our Psychology students and place them with high schools across Sydney. This year Raise hosted a record 62 of our Psychology students, three times as many as last year.

How do you engage with us? Where can we learn more?
Information on PACE can be found on the University website.

The PACE Human Sciences team can be contacted on 98501460 or on our email address pace.humansciences@mq.edu.au

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