From Internship to Impact
Digital literacy is a critical enabler for SMEs in their effort to better integrate into global value chains. Unsurprisingly, a key component in developing and supporting technology-enabled SMEs is a workforce equipped with the skills needed to tackle digital challenges of the future. Through its Education and Industry Capability Development Programs, DMTC supports Australia’s national vision for a highly skilled, digitally literate workforce.
With assistance from the Defence Science Institute and Australian Industry Group, DMTC achieves this by providing undergraduate engineering, computer science and software development students with practical work experience, assisting SMEs in their journey towards digitising their manufacturing operations as part of our SEF Program. Interns play a key role in the delivery of DMTC’s SEF, with internships offering mutual benefits for students and industry partners. Students gain valuable experience working on the factory floor, while industry partners gain much-needed support as they progress along their digital transformation journey.
Ashleigh (Ash) Mildern, an Engineering and Computer Science student at RMIT, joined DMTC’s SEF Program as an intern in late 2023. For Ash, what initially drove her interest in the program was the opportunity to flex some of the technical skills acquired during her studies, in addition to gaining exposure to the real-world applications of engineering principles.
“At university each problem has a very clear and defined solution. What I was most looking forward to as part of my SEF internship was getting my hands dirty and delivering real solutions for participating companies.”
Throughout her internship, Ash thrived on the absence of predetermined solutions when working with industry. In contrast to what she was commonly tasked with at university, Ash enjoyed the challenge of working with industry to find solutions to open-ended and novel challenges. “[Industry] know what they want, they know what it might look like, they know what it should do. What they don’t know is how to make that happen.” It was this iterative process of tinkering, failing, tinkering some more and then succeeding that made her internship especially satisfying.
Ash collaborated closely with two companies, Aldus Engineering and Successful Endeavours. Despite manufacturing distinct products, both companies shared similar requirements for their digital transformation projects. In Ash’s words, each project aimed to “collect data to enhance the efficiency of manufacturing practices”.
For Ray Keefe, Managing Director of Successful Endeavours, the benefit of the SEF Program is clear: You don’t know what you don’t know. “It seems simple in principle, but in practice it means you miss opportunities for major improvements to your manufacturing operations,” Ray says. “You don’t understand what is possible and what value it can bring to the table – which is why DMTC’s SEF Program has proven highly valuable to taking our electronics manufacturing operations to the next level.”
And the benefits don’t end there. Ray said another major advantage of the SEF Program is the direct support businesses receive from capable interns who help to identify the best approaches for implementing the tech, as well as assisting with the physical implementation.
“We were particularly pleased to have worked with our intern, Ash…she was genuinely interested in what we made and helped us implement what is now a central piece in our quality assurance and traceability system.”
