GCCA | Graduate Careers Council of Australia

Graduate Careers Australia

ergo - Number 96 September 2004

Careers Services in the UK and Australia: A View from the Outside

In the last edition of ergo, we featured the story of Eleanor Berry from the University of Warwick, UK who swapped jobs, houses and cars for six months with Rosemary Sainty from the University of Sydney in Australia. Part Two of this feature is from Rosemary, who left Australia in mid-Semester One, 2004.

Rosemary’s Story

On the sixteenth of February Eleanor Berry and I began our six-month exchanges at our respective universities. The following is my brief collection of observations and experiences from the University Warwick thus far…

Biggest Adjustment

A keyboard with a £ sign which means that approximately ten other key strokes are in different places!

Differences, Similarities and Learning Opportunities

The big surprise for me has been the number of differences in the systems within graduate recruitment and careers services between the two countries/universities, for example:

Graduate Recruitment: in the UK employers are very interested in students of all disciplines, so that for instance a classics or generalist graduate can work in a law firm and do a law conversion course to eventually become a lawyer, or work in an accountancy firm and train to become an accountant.

Academic systems: in nomenclature and degree structure eg. the English norm with honours degrees is a 3 year degree with a very good result, and masters years are more like our honours – confused? Degrees at Warwick usually focus on only one or two disciplines as opposed to the Australian Rosemary Sainty and family system of often four disciplines in first year, reducing to a double “major” in final year.

Career Guidance Practices: at Warwick the guidance sessions have a fundamentally different approach to Sydney University. Based on a person centred model, sessions are characterised by the development of lifelong career management skills in the student, whereas at Sydney sessions are more information focussed. Sitting behind this difference is a government-driven agenda on education and employability, with nationwide initiatives such as “personal development profiles” for all students in England.

The size of the service: Warwick is significantly larger than Sydney (and indeed many other services in the UK) and this means greater opportunities for more programs and activities on campus. At Warwick there are three teams within the Careers service – the Employer Connect team, the Careers Advisers team and the Information team. Advisers have their own portfolios of departmental and occupational responsibilities, and are very proactive in their work within these departments. For example, my responsibilities include all Modern Languages, Business Studies, IT, Psychology, mature age students. There are also Staff Student Liaison Committees at Warwick, which help facilitate this process.

Scope of role: I was used to working with employers and students as well as being involved in some information-based work. What I may have lost in the “all-rounder” approach at Sydney I have gained in the more focused role at Warwick.

Style: both universities are prominent, research-led and have reputations for excellence. There is a noticeable difference is style though – Sydney is Australia’s first established university and is therefore steeped in a traditional inheritance, whereas Warwick is much younger (established in the 1960s) with a keen energy to emerge as one of Britain’s finest. Both therefore attract some incredibly talented students.

It follows then that both institutions attract the attention of the major graduate recruiters, and both Sydney’s and Warwick’s Careers Service running costs are significantly covered by income generated from providing services to these employers.

Highlights

A particular highlight was working with the Year Abroad German Studies students at their Residential School weekend, in a castle in Germany! My role involved delivering a careers presentation – with a surfing theme to add the Australian touch (!) and one-to-one sessions for the students. A memorable time was had with the staff, students and local population, exploring the castle and “wanderung” around the village.

We have had lots of comments such as “well you’ve drawn the short straw ‘aven’t you?”– ie. coming to live and work in the UK and leaving Australia behind. I suspect that this is mostly due to the weather. We love the history, the proximity to the rest of Europe, the humour: irony is everywhere – from the bus driver to the staff room! The children have been warmly accepted into their new school, the Head Teacher has taken us under his wing – his eldest daughter now babysits for us and my partner coaches the school soccer team.

Challenges

As a family we have had to function as a close-knit team, without the usual support of extended family and friends, familiar goods and services (eg. family doctor) and initially the settling in/adjustment can be stressful. Six months on reflection is probably not long enough – twelve would be better but family commitments in Australia meant this was the most suitable time for us.

Ingredients For a Successful Exchange

1. A good working relationship with your exchangee – and easy access to email!
2. Perseverance! There has been a lot of detail and organisation involved in swapping jobs, homes, cars. Add to this visa requirements, partners’ and children’s needs, packing up etc. and it’s easy to see how vital perseverance is.
3. The support of both managers and institutions. We have been well supported by our managers Inta Heimanis (Sydney) and both Gill Frigerio and Kate Dodd (Warwick).

Finally

I would thoroughly recommend an exchange, both to interested individuals and participating institutions. I’m sure that the respective services will benefit – every day there are opportunities for reciprocal learning.