Our Career and Employment Service currently offers two employability programs to undergraduate students: the Create Your Future Program and the Professional Development Program. Students participating in these programs gain skills to enable them to set and achieve their career goals. Applications for the Create Your Future Program are by invitation only. Applications for the Professional Development Program open mid-November, so encourage your final year students to apply on Career Hub!
The acquisition of career development awareness, employability skills and job search skills greatly increases the likelihood of students finding professional employment after completing their degree. Unfortunately, many students reach their final year with little or no understanding of the processes involved in finding work and the strategies they can adopt for enhancing their competitiveness in the job market.
Create Your Future Program addresses this!
The Create Your Future Program (funded by the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program: HEPPP) is part of the Widening Participation Strategy for undergraduate equity students and has been offered to students since Session 2, 2015. The program aims to increase the employability skills of undergraduate students from equity backgrounds during any stage of their degree. Students who complete all requirements receive a Create Your Future Employability Award.
Create Your Future students complete a variety of face-to-face and online events designed to increase their employability by:
- Gaining career direction
- Developing communication and networking skills
- Understanding what employers are looking for
- Finding out how and where to search for jobs
- Learning how to write an effective resume and gain interview skills
- Creating a professional presentation for networking events, interviews and at work
- Experiencing an assessment centre exercise to prepare students for the real thing
Feedback from participants:
“If you want to be career-ready and gain skills that you don’t gain in any other area of your degree and to set yourself apart from other people, then you should come, because it’s not something that everyone knows and it gives you an advantage.”
“It was really helpful. It provided me with a lot of resources that I didn’t know existed.”
“I see this as a guide… It’s like a map, telling me where to go next…”
“I think it was really helpful just in terms of putting yourself out there and networking, especially going up to employers, the cold calls.”
“I think the individual consultation really helps direct your path a lot more as well.”
Professional Development Program
The Professional Development Program commenced in Session 1, 2018 when applications to participate in the Professional Development Program were invited from all students in their final or penultimate years. Successful applicants were chosen, not on the quality of their application but on perceived gaps in their written communication, career planning knowledge and general job readiness.
The aim of this intensive program, delivered through a variety of learning modes, is to offer students at the end of their degrees the opportunity to acquire the practical skills and knowledge to be successful in securing employment, entering working life, and planning their life-long career.
Success Story: An Applied Finance student arranged for an informational interview when he met a representative from FactSet through a Macquarie University Trading Competition. The representative was so impressed with the student that she called the manager in and the informational interview turned into a job interview. The student was offered an internship in their Investment Centre on the spot!
Applications for Semester 1 2019 will open in mid-November 2018. Please encourage your final year undergraduate students to develop their professional identity. More details are on the student portal.
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