AFIS Info Day Semester 2 2013 by Katherine

 This day was organised by AFIS and sponsored by the City of Melbourne.

There were many activities that day such as bingo where someone won a camera. There were also many prize draws and someone won the iPad Mini.

There was free food that day too.
List of speakers on that day

•  Anna - Jobhunting and Resumes 

Anna is from Navitas which is a recruitment and job seeking agency. They teach students especially newcomers how to find jobs.

• Danny - Volunteering in Australia 

Danny is an employment consultant at Monash University. Monash University is the best uni for student services but sadly not many students use their service.

"Volunteering is the worst thing if you don't have the right attitude". That can be said for a lot of things especially choosing the right job for you. It has to be something that you like and are passionate about.

What have you done for the organisation?

Everyone wants a job, but most employers want experience. It costs too much to train someone up.

" What you study is the same everywhere."

" How well do you know Australia?" Employers will ask this of the International students. Volunteering is a great way to utilise all the information given to you at uni as well as learn about the Australian workplace. It is a chance for International students to enhance their communication skills. Students should volunteer without expecting anything in return. Students should be committed and passionate and have a desire to learn.

"If I work with everyone, everyone will work for me".

Employers look for these things:

1) Degree- 20%

2) Experience- 40%

3) Interviews (that is if you get one)- 40%

• Shanice - Employment and Working Rights 

Shanice is from Kabo Lawyers. She talked about work rights and emphasized on the fact that there is no difference between locals and International students in regards to pay and work rights. Everyone is entitled to a 30 minute break after working five hours. Students should also understand the contracts before signing it. If you don't understand something ask.

lately there has been a lot of problems in the hospitality industry and the cleaning industry, mainly to do with sham contracting. This is where the employer wants students to apply for an ABN and then they can get away with not paying insurance and not paying the student properly. "You are subcontracting me" says the employer.

A lot of the times in the hospitality industry there has been a lot of food payments. This is not allowed. Students must be paid the correct amount as per the contract/award. If you are a casual in which many students are then you get 25% extra on top of your base pay. You don't get paid sick leave and any other entitlements. If you work part time you get all your benefits paid to you (mainly pro rata).

Note: Volunteers are not considered employees and therefore volunteering doesn't count to your 40 hours per fortnight restriction.

• Student Panel 

The student panel included Lambert from an accountancy firm, Diane from Meld and student A from AFIS. This student panel discussed ways of getting a job. They also reiterated Danny's point about volunteering. Anna said that students should volunteer for not for profit organisations. Danny agreed with this point.

• Dinesh - Victorian Police 

The police are very friendly in Australia. THey are always willing to help students if need be. If you report something your student visa will not be cancelled. They also gave us some useful tips such as don't leave your bag lying around and don't travel alone late at night.

• Marc - Melbourne Fire Brigade 

I wasn't there for that talk but I heard that there were some useful tips such as having a smoke alarm and not deadlocking yourself inside the house.

• Benjamin - Consumer Affairs Victoria 

Benjamin talked about renting rights and making sure that you get the receipts for any monies paid to the landlord. He also emphasized on making sure that all the forms are filled in correctly (such as the condition report and the contract). It can be very hard to get your bond back if you don't fill in the condition report properly at the start.

We also went through the different types of rentals.

• Michelle - Life Saving Victoria 

One of their points is to swim between the flags.

• Shannon - Migration Policy (another post to be written up soon)

This is the one that a lot of students came to.

And then there was a lovely Latin dance afterwards.

Many thanks to CoM and AFIS for inviting me to the event.