GCCA | Graduate Careers Council of Australia

Graduate Careers Australia

ergo - Number 96 September 2004

Postgraduate Careers Advisor Alan McAlpine

Alan McAlpine has been working for the last three months as one of the first postgraduate careers advisors dedicated to the support of research postgraduate students at the University of Auckland. Some of you may remember Alan, having been a regular attendee at the NAGCAS conferences for the past four years. He has successfully made the transition from being a consultant with Trevor-Roberts Associates (a career consultancy) in Brisbane to the University world.

Tony Crane presented back at the Melbourne NAGCAS conference (2002) on the need and the likelihood of this new position and it has now finally come to fruition. Alan is extremely privileged to be able to take on this exciting new position, and has spent the past three months doing a number of things to find out what the needs and desires of his target population are. His aim is to offer a service to the postgraduate population (specifically research masters and PhD students) of the University, over and above that already offered by the Careers and Employment Office. “There seems little point in duplicating services that are already widely available” says Alan.

Providing New Support

After three months in the job, Alan now feels he can find his way around the University, and has a better idea of what is needed, though there is still a long way to go. Alan has been looking overseas to see what other Universities are doing in respect of offering support for their postgraduate students and has been picking up a few ideas along the way. He has also been networking extensively around the University to find out what both staff and students want. “It seems clear that both students and staff in this area have felt somewhat neglected in the past” said Alan, “this gives us an ideal opportunity to start providing small activities to encourage the students to start interacting with the new support that is available. I have also been impressed with the pockets of things that are happening around the two main campuses here, and am keen to provide the central link and theme for those activities.”

Students Enthusiastic About Service

Alan has also been impressed with the enthusiasm that the students have shown towards the new service. “I have already been involved with a careers evening run by the Engineering Postgraduate Society with my support. The evening involved six employers who spoke about their experiences as postgraduates, and about the type of work a postgraduate could expect to encounter within those organisations.” Alan is currently working closely with the student association from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, who want to run an employability skills workshop for all their research student members.

It seems that an exciting and busy time will be ahead. Alan is keen to keep in touch with all those he has met over the past few years, as well as make new contacts with anyone interested in discussing postgraduate student development. He can be contacted on [email protected] .