Abstract

Otago Polytechnic Auckland International Campus (OPAIC) offers student internships through its Green Office Toitū programme, with the aim of developing sustainability awareness and skills in a non-simulated, experiential context. In order to investigate the impact of sustainability internships, the Employability and the Learning & Teaching teams at OPAIC have been conducting a long term research project on the perceptions, learning progress, skill acquisition and career paths of the student and alumni participants. This article is a case study (based on written qualitative data obtained through the wider research project) designed to focus on two Green Office Toitū participants in greater depth than would be afforded by a more comprehensive survey. By comparing and contrasting their experiences of acting on sustainability, first as Green Office interns, and later as alumni working for different employers in Auckland, this study provides a detailed picture of the way that sustainability internships can affect the attitudes and behaviour of those involved. Their personal reports describe their learning in sustainability and the challenges they were able to meet in order to disseminate information, make suggestions, put forward proposals and introduce measures designed to improve the organisational culture, policies and processes at their place of work. The narrative that emerges from these accounts gives us an insight into the cognitive and affective development which enabled Green Office Toitū interns to bridge the “commitment gap” and become agents of change as alumni.

Keywords:
sustainability internships, Green Office movement, work-integrated learning. 

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