Graduate Careers Australiaergo - Number 89 December 2002Professional Career Essentials Program 2002The Professional Career Essentials (PCE) program ran for the second successful year in 2002 between 1 – 2 October at the University of Western Sydney. “I learnt about myself and what I want to achieve. It was inspiring and totally educational.” This was the response from one of the student participants at the second annual Professional Career Essentials (PCE) held at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) in October this year. Sponsored by SEEK Campus and gradlink, PCE is a two day intensive insight into industry. It gives 11 young professionals the chance to work as mentors to the keenest of UWS’s final and penultimate year students, and equips students with confidence, motivation and more importantly first-hand knowledge from young professionals who have experienced it all before.
Day One Day one of the program was facilitated by Brisbane-based Alan Mac Alpine, a senior careers consultant from Trevor-Roberts Associates. Experiential activities brought the young professionals side by side with students, thus raising the students’ awareness of a wide array of “Career Essentials” such as management, effective networking and interviewing skills. Wesley Toms, a young professional from The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA) and past UWS graduate, said, “The most important part of the program, from the student perspective, was to get a picture of industries from people in those industries. Receiving information from these sources, will give context to information they have received previously and will also give context to future information.” Ending the day on a high note was Tom Nealon, Managing Director of Fluke Australia. Providing all with an inspirational talk he relayed the upside of staying motivated, the difference a positive attitude can make and, for when the students are in the workforce, the importance of maintaining a balance between work life and relaxation.
Day Two Day two, facilitated by UWS Careers Advisors, provided a series of reflective activities to assist students in identifying their own skills, interests, and values. Patrick Ghandour, a Marketing student said “This enabled me to recognise my inner strengths and build on them while at the same time highlight aspects in which I needed to improve”. For more information contact Jackie Simpson on
phone: 02 4763 0742 or
Jackie Simpson |
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