Skills required for international students in Australia

“I also see that you are quite shy, rarely integrate with native speakers. Maybe you are afraid of judgment or your foreign language is not good, so you are not confident,” Jenna Nguyen shared at episode three Seminar Shine with Australia – Shine with Australia with the theme “Invisible Trap” Australian international students should pay attention to. must when entering a new school environment, and at the same time suggest solutions to help young people planning to study abroad pay attention.

Helena Nguyen – FSO auditor at Ernst & Young Vietnam, an alumnus of the University of Queensland, said that accumulating and improving soft skills is one of the important notes for students while studying abroad. Without these skills, you may face many difficulties, affecting your studies and employment after graduation.

According to Helena Nguyen, employers will want candidates who are both professional and good communicators, know how to express their thoughts, can work in groups, make presentations,… These skills are not too difficult, each person can be cultivated while still a student.

How to improve soft skills is not too complicated. Students can join clubs, participate in networking events, volunteer or actively make friends with locals or international friends. Australia has many cultural and sports groups; events related to academics, job connections… inside and outside the school. Therefore, young people can exchange and develop skills at the same time.

“These activities are when you can meet new people, maybe it’s a job opportunity in the future. Let’s look beyond, instead of just focusing on studying,” the former Australian student emphasized. strong.

In addition, when working part-time to increase experience and skills, international students need to pay attention to practice observation and actively explore and learn everything around. This can help you easily integrate into the working environment, and at the same time, learn more practical knowledge.

From practical experience, Jenna, for example, when working as an intern at a third largest media company in the world, she was overwhelmed because everyone wore suits and was very serious. However, when observing, she noticed that the Digital Marketing department – where she worked was somewhat more comfortable in the matter of clothing. From there, she realized that observation is an extremely important skill. Since then, the female international student born in 1995 knows what clothes are appropriate, what her specific job is, and what behavior is right.

Regarding learning, the speakers advised Vietnamese students when studying in Australia to pay attention to the issue of quoting sources. This can also be considered an “invisible trap” for Vietnamese students. If you do not study carefully, accidentally omitted, learners may be considered as plagiarism, stealing ideas. This greatly affects the learning process of international students.

This is also a great lesson for Jenna Nguyen when she struggled to write an essay for a long time. Having studied in Vietnam, a female student born in 1995 said that this process at domestic schools is not too strict. Meanwhile, universities in Australia have very strict requirements on the sources of materials used in the article. Therefore, when writing, students need to cite carefully, make a detailed list.

Australia has a way to cite and list sources after its own exercise. Each school also applies a different way, so it is quite easy to encounter confusion. Jenna Nguyen recounted that when she wrote the article, many teachers graded the list of sources very carefully, so in the first time she studied in Australia, her score was not as high as expected.

Helena Nguyen also witnessed a friend being called to the office for a review for copying her own writing earlier. Because of the same topic, the person who reused a passage and thought it was his own, does not need to cite the source. However, the lecturer explained, in Australia, even if it is his own, copying without the name of the document, the author… is still considered plagiarism.

However, Vietnamese students should not be too worried because schools, including Western Sydney University, have an international student support department. International students can ask professors or friends to improve their studies. “Citation is also a problem that native students have a lot of trouble with, so don’t think you’re inferior,” emphasized Jenna.

Host Le Nguyen Tra My – Vice President of the Vietnamese Student Association in Victoria, Monash University students also affirmed that universities in Australia support students quite well. If you don’t know how to cite the source, you can look it up on the school’s website or attend counseling sessions and workshops of the international student support department.

In addition, to minimize the risks when taking exams, Helena Nguyen suggests that international students should use the website Citethisforme.com. Learners only need to paste the link of the document into the web and the system will automatically generate the source according to the desired standard. It is the student’s job to choose a sample that matches the requirements of the lecturer.

“Plagging in Australia is very serious and you can completely get black marks on your government records if you accidentally plagiarize someone or yourself,” the former international student was born in 1999. emphasize.

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