The University of Melbourne and Telstra build on significant partnership, co-designing a brand new micro-credential

Designed with Telstra’s Head of Innovation & Partnerships and the company’s learning design team, the new course aims to empower professionals with the capabilities to achieve positive impact be that social, commercial or otherwise.

The micro-credential will complement Telstra employees’ existing skills as well as address the industry-wide need for a workforce with an intrapreneurial mindset, equipped to develop innovative ideas and drive projects through to execution.

The online course is open to Telstra employees and the general public. A unique benefit of this course is that participants work on their own project or initiative which ensures knowledge and skills are applied immediately to deepen and contextualise learning.

The course is further enriched by numerous case studies and contributions from corporations which participate in the University’s Innovation Practice Program (IPP) which pairs industry mentors with masters students to develop innovative solutions to real-life challenges facing organisations. Associate Professor Peter Cebon, Program Leader of the IPP at the University of Melbourne, says, “Intrapreneurship Fundamentals is a natural extension of our partnership with Telstra and points to the exciting places we can go in the future. Co-designing this Melbourne MicroCert brings together the University's expertise and the insight of Telstra’s Innovation team to develop learning that is truly meaningful and will, quite rapidly, have an impact.”

Head of Innovation & Partnerships at Telstra, Luke Harwood says, “Building our workforce to be successful intrapreneurs is crucial in the digital economy. Having that initial great idea is the first step but employees need to be empowered with the tangible skills to see their ideas succeed through creating and iterating on MVPs that hopefully drive product/market fit. We’re thrilled to be working with the University of Melbourne to develop the Melbourne MicroCert, and we’re confident professionals and organisations will really benefit from it.”

The course is the latest in Telstra’s commitment to partner with five Australian universities to jointly develop the skills and capabilities of both university students and professionals to help tackle the skill shortage in Australia and develop a talent pipeline while keeping pace with the changing nature of work.