Team profile: UWS Careers

Who works in the UWS Careers team?
Freny Tayebjee – Manager
Siobhan Markus – Projects Assistant
Jackie Simpson – CEC Team Leader
Trisha Harris - Careers Education Consultant (maternity leave)
Geoff Forward - Careers Education Consultant
Steve Rawling - Careers Education Consultant
Justine Fowler - Careers Education Consultant (external secondment)
Alice Watkins – Careers Education Consultant
Katie Conn - Careers Education Consultant
Daniel Collins – Online Media Developer
Patricia Parish – Careers Education Consultant
Katie Roskolnikova – Careers Assistant (intern)
Nikolas Alexandriw – Events Assistant (intern)
Judy Holman – Business Partnership Facilitator
Elien Weeks – Program and Admin Coordinator
Kelly Whitney – Jobs on Campus Coordinator
Terrie Smith – Administration Officer
Peryn El Boustani – Recruitment Assistant (intern)
Melissa Ali – Recruitment Assistant (intern)
Avidelle Oreas – Recruitment and communications Assistant (intern)
Mary Harris – Administration Officer
Adam Clayton – Careers Liaison Officer
Kate Refalo – Administration Assistant

What does the UWS Careers team do?
The UWS Careers team is focused on helping UWS students gain career development skills, providing them with degree-related job and internship opportunities and also helping students to expand their employer networks.

At UWS Careers, we have around 20 dedicated staff, including part-time staff and interns. We work with students to provide the best opportunities to help them establish their career path through things such as UWS Employer Expos, student recruitment, national and international internships, building employer and industry relationships, career workshops and one-on-one consultations with our trained Careers Education Consultants. 

Where is the UWS Careers team located?
Building P, Ground Floor, Room PG.60-71, Kingswood campus.

Who does the UWS Careers team work with?
The UWS Careers team collaborates with various internal and external key stakeholders. However, we first and foremost work closely with the students, working towards facilitating their university experience and strengthening their employability skills. As the team is dedicated to career building, we liaise closely with all Schools and Units within the University. The team has dedicated staff who work exclusively with external businesses to help bring degree-related internships and job opportunities to students during and after their degree. Such working relationships also help to ensure that UWS Careers is kept up to date with the latest industry trends and employer requirements. We also work with international organisations to provide UWS students with the chance to work overseas in their chosen field.

What would be a good example of the work that you are involved in?
UWS Careers provides career planning and job seeking information and support to students and recent graduates. We do this through activities such as workshops, careers events, individual consultations and online services. Typical examples of our work include providing résumé reviews for students, assisting with job seeking and interview skills, assisting students to gain relevant experience through internships and introducing them to graduate employers through careers expos. We have a broad range of self-help resources available too in the form of interactive online products that help students analyse their career options and build their employability skills.
 
What challenges does the team face, and how have/do you plan to overcome them?
There are several challenges we face here at UWS Careers. The first is in engaging the interest and meeting the needs of such a vast number of students within our limited staff resources. The second is reaching across all of the campuses whilst being based primarily on the Kingswood site.  Both of these challenges are being addressed through an increased focus on using the internet. We have re-developed our website and are introducing new online products to help build an interactive online environment to meet the needs of students. By utilising social media through our Facebook and Twitter presence we are also building new avenues for student engagement. Making more services available online ensures more students can access the support they need when they need it. It also frees up our valuable staff resources to concentrate more on offering personalised support for students with more specialised needs.

Another key challenge for us at UWS Careers is to engage students early in their time at university. Many students only contact us just before they graduate to help them find a job. Many of these students would have been better prepared if they had engaged with us much earlier. With this in mind we will continue to work alongside the Schools to identify timely opportunities to work with students. We offer guest lectures, resources and online learning activities that can complement the academic content of courses. Getting the ‘careers’ message out to students earlier benefits students by keeping them focused on the purpose of their study and helping build their confidence and employability skills well in advance of their graduation.
 
What is the team focusing on in the next 12 months? 
Over the next 12 months we are focussing intensely on building our online presence. With the help of a SSAF funding grant, we have developed a project that directly focuses on researching and developing better online careers education products and services. The project has already seen the introduction of Interview Stream (online video-based interview practice), Star Pronunciation (online English pronunciation course for UWS International Students) and Harrison Assessments (online career-enjoyment analysis assessment). We are currently trialling other online resources and packages. 

A second area of focus for 2014 is on increasing our international and domestic student internship opportunities. Internships offer students valuable degree-related experience and ensure that UWS students have the edge when applying for competitive graduate positions. Our internship program is attractive to both students and employers. For students there’s the opportunity for paid work within a degree-relevant context.  For employers there’s the opportunity to trial an eager and motivated student on a project or in a role that will provide real benefits to the organisation. Internships are offered through external agencies and employers, but we are also developing the range of UWS-based internships through our Jobs on Campus project. We will be encouraging departments across UWS to think creatively about how they might be able to utilise a student intern, to provide some degree-related ‘real world’ experience that will result in a benefit to both the student and the department. Anyone interested in discussing this idea is encouraged to contact UWS Careers on 4736 0424 or email careers@uws.edu.au.