Louise Shinners,1 Vanessa Mastro1
1UNSW, Sydney, Australia
The Professional Development Program for International Students is a professional skills and workplace experience program designed to assist UNSW international students enhance their employment outcomes and career opportunities in Australia. The program has been successfully running since 2009 and consists of a 3 day interactive seminar program and a 50 hour workplace experience hosted by a staff supervisor within the university. Since it began, the Program has seen 1295 students complete the 3 day seminar and 929 students have undertaken the workplace experience component. The Program is accredited by AHEGS allowing students to gain official recognition of their volunteering experience.
In this session, we will provide an overview of the program including the content and structure, we will share our experience in managing the program from recruitment and selection to coordinating the workplace experience activities. We will also showcase some of the successes of the program from both the student and university perspective.
Biography:
Louise Shinners, Careers Consultant (Projects), UNSW Careers and Employment
BA in Organisational Learning, University of Technology Sydney, Certificate IV Training and Assessment, Diploma in Frontline Management.
Louise is a Careers Consultant (Projects) at UNSW Careers and Employment, where she has worked for the last 8 years. Her enthusiasm for learning and development programs was ignited through her Bachelor of Organisational Learning, leading her to begin her career in program coordination for job seeker courses. She then transitioned to human resource development, managing the design and delivery of accredited training courses for large corporate clients. With a passion for excellent service delivery and strong project management skills, she currently manages two career development programs, including the Professional Development Program for International Students.
Vanessa Mastro, Careers Consultant, UNSW Careers and Employment
Bachelor of Science (Psychology), University of Sydney
Vanessa is a Careers Consultant at UNSW Careers and Employment. She is an experienced Career Development Professional with a background in career management, human resources, organisational psychology and graduate recruitment. In her role she provides assistance and advice to students on careers and employment issues through cooperative education programs, career development seminars and one-on-one coaching. In the last year one of her focuses has been enhancing the employability skills of international students through the management of the Professional Development Program (International Students).