Hang Zhang's Vocational Placement Experience
Photos: Hang Zhang at Connecting Up with Stathis Avramis, SAcommunity Data Analysis Team; Hang at the Connecting Up Teams Staff Meeting, Hang with Rob Kalka, Business Development Manager, Hang working on Power BI & Microsoft Excel Dashboard.
Professional Year Vocational Placement Experience with Connecting Up, a service of Infoxchange
From 7 October 2021 - 31 December 2021, Hang Zhang undertook an ICT Business Analysts vocational placement with Connecting Up for 3 days a week as part of his Professional Year Program Internship Placement providing opportunities and experience.
The aim of this vocational placement is for students to gain practical experience in their field in a local organisation and business environment, and to have the opportunity to learn and apply their existing skills and knowledge in a professional workplace in Australia.
Hang had been volunteering in the Connecting Up SAcommunity program from the 10th February 2021, utilising his skills in the Council Statistics program presenting data analysis summaries to councils on community services operating in their area, displaying the service type, number and demand for those services. Consequently we welcomed the opportunity for Hang to undertake his vocational placement and expand his experience across the wider organisation. SAcommunity is a volunteer program of not-for-profit Connecting Up Inc., a subsidiary of Infoxchange, a not-for-profit social enterprise that has been delivering technology for social justice for over 30 years.
Editor's note: Hang continued to volunteer with Connecting Up after his internship and we are excited to announce that Hang Zhang now has a full-time role from 16 May 2022 as a Data Analyst with a business in SA - Congratulations Hang!
Business Meetings, Organisation Objectives and Operations, Training and Education Opportunities
For his Internship, Hang attended Connecting Up monthly staff meetings listening to updates across the Business Development, Capability Building, Marketing & Communication, Customer Experience, Technology, Community Information and IT Support teams. Hang also undertook relevant Connecting Up training and education programs to look at topics including Cyber Security 'Cyber Security 101: Do you know how to keep your organisation secure?', Data Analysis for NFPs:'Decisions with Data', 'Data driven decision making: Interpreting organisational data to drive and deliver high performance' and the Mastering LinkedIn Series.
Ping Pong/Table Tennis: Hang Zhang with Cameron Brown, Web Developer and James Newport, Senior Web developer
Work Health and Safety, Workplace People and Culture Programs
Hang participated in Infoxchange's People and Culture Team's health, wellbeing and education services as part of experiencing corporate workplace programs. The focus was on improving connections, engagement and motivation whilst providing support to staff during Covid-19, particularly as the organisation has offices across Australia and New Zealand.
Activities included remote Lunch & Learn Team sessions to hear from a range of talented people with extensive experience in the areas of technology such as: Katherine Boiciuc, Futurist and Director on the Infoxchange board. Katherine is a Director at Maximus International and is recognised as one of Australia’s 29 Inspirational Women making waves in STEM. She is a global leader with extensive experience in the technology and telco industries. Brett Quayle, Organisational Psychologist, Relationship Matters. Brett's specific interest is in organisational psychology and working with individuals and organisations to navigate the complexities of change, and managing mental health during Covid/ Post Covid world. Hang Zhang also took part in a range of other weekly wellness lunchtime activities including remote Yoga, Meditation and Reiki sessions and when in the office, Hang proved to be a skilled player at lunch table tennis.
Image: Rob Kalka, Business Development Manager, Connecting Up at the Connecting Up Conference
Workplace Relationships: Communication, Collaboration and Mentors
Data Analysis: Presenting Data Trends and Data Relationships
Hang worked closely with the Connecting Up Inc. Business Development Team and in consultation with his Business Development Manager, Rob Kalka where he created a Not-for-Profit (NFP) Technology Usage Dashboard to improve the analysis of NFP organisations' use of technology; segmented by organisation categories and tech product types.
Rob Kalka has been Hang's Volunteer Mentor and explained, "Through the use of Power BI and Excel Pivot Tables, Hang created visually clear and appealing dashboards for Connecting Up to analyse the performance of products in our catalogue. This work has enabled significant improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of our merchandise management" Rob said. "Hang is highly competent in data visualisation and was a pleasure to work with."
In addition, Hang also worked with the Connecting Up Inc. Community Information Team providing the Community Information and Volunteer Coordinator, Catherine McIntyre with an SAcommunity Dashboard to present and summarise data on the SAcommunity service; including site usage, database records, record currency and volunteer contribution. Both dashboards provided valuable visual displays of data used to track key metrics relevant to the organisation and we thank Hang for his amazing contribution to the organisation and hope in turn that his experience has been beneficial to him. - Thank you Hang!
[Editor's note: Hang continued to volunteer with Connecting Up after his internship and we are excited to announce that Hang Zhang now has a full-time role from 16 May 2022 as a Data Analyst with Land Services SA - Congratulations Hang!]
[Editor's note: Hang continued to volunteer with Connecting Up after his internship and we are excited to announce that Hang Zhang now has a full-time role from 16 May 2022 as a Data Analyst with Land Services SA - Congratulations Hang!]
