I Believe I Can Fly!

Australia is a famous and preferred destination for students. Students from all over the world come down under to get the taste of “practical” learning and I was one of them as well. Australia also provides pathways for permanent residency to the students who successfully completes the requirements as outlined by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).

I am not writing this to give any advise on immigration and I must say I am not an expert in that area. I am just trying to shed some light on the ground reality.

This policy of DIAC attracts more and more number of students every year to Australia. There was a huge influx of students and more numbers of students started graduating from the Australian Universities. These students applied for their permanent residency (PR) and then started looking for jobs. Now eventually over a period of time, there were still some graduates who were unable to find the job in their field and were in the jobs which was no where related to their field of study.  The basic issue was many students lacked the most critical skill – communication. They were no doubt fit to work in the industry in terms of their knowledge but the sheer lack of communication skills deprieved them of any job. In short, they were not Job Ready.

DIAC has approved various job-readiness programs called professional year program which also gives them additional points towards meeting the criteria PR. One of such program is the Professional Year (PY) Program that the Australian Computer Society (ACS) is authorised to run. ACS has several delivery partners for the program who delivers it to the students. It is one of the most effective program and covers some of the very interesting topics.

I always make sure I address the student of the PY Program at the opening bootcamp. My message is straight and simple. Communications skills are the first and foremost requirement and even important than the technical skills.

I think in my next post, I will cover the message that I pass on during the bootcamp.

As most of you are aware that the South Australian branch of the Australian Computer Society is hosting a branch conference this year and the theme is Survive and Thrive Through the Recession. The conference will run three stream: Professional Stream, Technical Stream and School Stream.

The professional stream will focus on career pathways where as technical stream will have more of case studies on surviving and thriving through the recession. The school stream is focused on school students and will promote ICT as a career option.

The conference has excellent line of speakers including Marcus Barber – Futurist (Keynote speaker), Andrew Mills – CIO of South Australian State Government, Simon Hackett – Managing Director of Internode, Philip Argy – 2009 Professional of the Year award winner and also immediate past president of the ACS, Steve Adcock – CEO of EICTA, Andy Koronios – Head of CIS School UniSA and many more. The conference will be opened by our vey own Prof Reg Coutts.

This is a very interesting opportunity for professional development and I am absolutely thrilled with the kind of response we have been receiving. Its been a long time since we have organised such a huge event for our members and I am extremely pleased with the development.

The conference committee consisting of Brenda Aynsley, Jack Burton, David Lindley, Grant Wigley, Joanna Zhai and myself (Chair) has put in tremendous effort to make this event of an international standard. I am extremely grateful to have them in this committee and am obliged with the support extended to this conference.

The conference is scheduled on 30th July 2009 at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

www.acs.org.au/sa/2009conference

The 6th annual International Young ICT Professionals Conference will be held on the 3rd and 4th of September, 2009 at the Dockside Convention Centre, Darling Harbour in Sydney Australia. This year’s theme is “Future of ICT – Lead, Transform, and Succeed“. The conference will combine a trade show and draw top ICT Professionals and Graduates in addition to international guests.

The program will provide young professionals, recent graduates and university students around the world with the techniques, skills and confidence to advance their career in Information Communications Technology (ICT). A Panel Discussion is included as part of the 2 day program.

Other speakers include:

• Dr Paul Scully-Power (Australia’s first astronaut)
• Fiona Balfour (former CIO of Qantas and Telstra)
• Graeme Wood (Founder Wotif)
• Glenn Wightwick (Director, IBM Australian Development Lab)
• Richard White (CEO and founder of CargoWise edi Pty Ltd)
• Neville Roach (Former Chairman Fujitsu Australia)
• Varun Kapur (General Manager (ANZ) – Tata Consultancy Service)
• Bianca Wirth (Green IT advocate)
• Chris Johnson (Australian National University)
• Sarma Rajaraman (CIO, Genworth Financial)
• Debbie Timmins (Australian Young Professional of the Year 2005)
• Yohan Ramasundara (Immediate Past Director, Young IT Board)
• Jill Noble (Principal, Pivotal HR)
• Mark Lloyd (A National ICT Identity and Thought Leader)
• Tom Worthington (Author of the book ‘Net Traveller’)
• Julie Irwin (A Winner of IT’s Million $ Babes Award).
• Stephen Kowal (CIO, CSC Australia)
  
  

Inspirational presentations from a world-class selection of speakers provide an invaluable opportunity that should not be missed by young professionals all around the world!

To register, please go to the Conference website at: http://www.acs.org.au/youngit/2009conference/

The Conference is supported by:

Platinum Sponsor – IBM, Gold Sponsors – Tata Consultancy Services and UTS, Silver Sponsors – Data Agility, Express IT and ACS Foundation, Bronze Sponsors – Microsoft, CSIRO and NICTA and Corporate Sponsor – McGrath Nicol