Thursday, November 13, 2014

Work ready: are international graduates work ready

In Deakin University's latest report it is said that International graduates are not work ready. We believe that this is true to some extent and we offer suggestions at the end for unis to take up for 2015.



Work readiness
International students say that they are not work ready with some employers from big firms wanting to hire local students and those with permanent residency saying that they are more committed to the job.
The Australian companies want someone that is local and has PR, especially for the engineering firms.
Deakin surveyed 107 International students all of which wants to stay in Australia after they finished studying. Most of them had unrealistic job expectations.

What do most big things require?
By things, we mean the companies. In the Deakin report it said that a credential from the uni is not enough. Employers want more of that for their students

* Communication
Graduates need to be able to converse in English and use their technical knowledge with their clients and colleagues. The Deakin report commonly uses the examples of accountancy and nursing as one of the much more prominent workplaces where communication is needed. It also refers to Engineering as another career path that needs technical language. Many of the big sized firms want graduates with an IELTS score of 8.

* Be able to fit into a team
With everything students need to be able to fit into a team. In uni life students are given teamwork but only for a small percentage of their program. Even with that they mainly choose to work with other International students and not many local/domestic students.

* Soft skills

These are what employers want and they think they don't get these from International students.

What can universities do to prepare their graduates for it?
There is a lot of scope for universities to prepare their graduates for work ready in their first year. For instance it could be that they volunteer at the Couch or some other international student organisations. Meld magazine is one such where they prepare their graduates to work hard. The other thing is many international students have part time jobs especially where they have to work in teams. For example: Maccas where they employ both locals and internationals.

A lot of universities have the WIL (Work Integrated Learning) program but not many students are doing that.

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