GCCA | Graduate Careers Council of Australia

Graduate Careers Australia

ergo - Number 96 September 2004

2004 NAGCAS Employer Visits – ACT

In late June 2004, the next instalment in the NAGCAS (National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services) Employer Workplace Visits was held over three days in the Australian Capital Territory. Having perused the program I was very much looking forward to this event, as it would take in a diverse range of workplaces, all of which had something interesting to offer and many of which were quite unique. Canberra is an unusual city with a purpose-built feel and a kind of “remoteness”, perhaps because much of what occurs has national rather than local implications, but balanced against this is a sense of importance and purpose which is rather exciting.

Highlights of the three days were many for me, not the least of which was the opportunity to catch up with old friends and acquaintances, as well as meeting some careers staff whom I had spoken to but not met in person. Attendees came from all around the country: from WA, Tasmania and the Eastern Coast, as well as from New Zealand. Personally I found this particular collection of workplaces among the most interesting I have yet visited during these exercises, and although quite specialised in what they offer graduates, visiting these organisations gave many valuable insights into the likely experiences of graduates after their job-search/recruitment process is over.

The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) was one particularly fascinating experience as we were able to watch Olympic athletes in training – their speed and agility was quite incredible. The AIS is also apparently planning to extend their Careers
Counselling for Elite Athletes courses, held in conjunction with Victoria University, to be used for other “elites” in music, dance and so on (more about this in an article to be featured in a future edition of ergo).

A very enjoyable visit to Questacon, a large-scale version of Melbourne’s Scienceworks, also stands out for a number of reasons; one of these is their “Science Circus” program – a science “roadshow” which employs graduates for a year to travel around the country giving science lessons to schools in many remote and regional areas (including the Kimberley region). Another reason is the “handson” component of Questacon, which included exercises designed to teach about the affects of fear and adrenalin on the body – a number of NAGCAS attendees dared the vertical drop to experience weightlessness and the simulated guillotine (which was about my limit).

Other employer presentations of note included a spiel on the ASIS/ASIO recruiting drive which is happening (albeit in fairly covert manner) at the moment. For the uninitiated (as indeed I was), ASIS stands for Australia Secret Intelligence Service, and is an integral part of the intelligence community in Australia; this also comprises the ONA (Office of National Assessments) and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

In a busy schedule we also managed to visit the Australian War Memorial, where we were shown a massive (in scale) “sound and light” show recreating the experiences of bomber pilots during the First World War. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, another department of government often in the news of late, was also represented during the visits, as was the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

On the last night of the event, the twenty-five or so attendees of the visits gathered at the careers centre at ANU (Australian National University), for some pre-dinner drinks and also to launch the new postgraduate careers book A Degree of Certainty – written by the careers teams at ANU and Flinders, and edited, published and distributed by the Graduate Careers Council of Australia. Many thanks to Kate, Janelle, Kim and Carole at the ANU careers centre, for what was a fascinating andthoroughly enjoyable three days (despite the lack of snow!) – I look forward to visiting Canberra again in the near future.