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.
