Employability Forum Student Perspectives Presented by: Zaheer Qazi & Sebastian Au

Perspective on International Student Experience  Cost & quality of education  Strong support network  Cost of living (i.e. housing, commodities)  Fair and equal treatment  Career support & opportunities  Quality of life

Student experience  Great quality of education with some problems in teaching quality  Wonderful support network  if known  Very high costs of living for international students  Discrimination from employers  Applied for approximately 100 part-time marketing jobs before landing first job  Often, visa status is stated as reason for not being considered  Lack of career support  Moderate quality of life before finding job/ high quality afterwards

When students arrive at the airport

While looking for jobs

Reality in the job market

 Disengaged students (need most support)  Students seeking for independence (casual or part-time workers)  Engaged students (student leaders who volunteer)  Combination of independent and engaged students Different kind of students

 Lack of employability support  Got underpaid and unpaid many times  Started volunteering during degree  Got jobs but not career oriented  Rejected from most of the jobs due to student visa restrictions  Mental stress  Not much student involvement in decision making for int’l students Personal experience while studying

Looking for first career job

Discrimination from employers  Many students want to gain some work experience before going back to their home countries  DIAC is supporting this by offering post-study work visas  Businesses discriminate applicants with no PR or Australian Citizenship  My experience:  About to graduate  Want to gain work experience in Australia before going back to Germany  In the search of graduate positions in marketing  Almost all listings are only open to Australian citizens or holders of PR

Discrimination from employers – contd.

 Create more opportunities for students within the institution  Awareness and support for those being underpaid  Student’s should be acknowledged for volunteering  Facilitate volunteering to build leadership and personal skills  Educate employers about benefits of employing international students Recommendations

 Enforce stricter anti-discrimination laws against businesses  Offer central career support services for recent international graduates  Create career fair for international students  Current career fair (The Big Meet) focuses almost entirely on local graduates  Run internship programs for high-achieving international students