A new online guide to encourage Australian employers to hire international students has been released by the International Education Association of Australia.
International Students: A guide for Australian Employers was created in response to concerns raised within the international education industry that Australian employers are unaware of how best to engage and employ international students.
“There is sometimes a perception amongst employers that it is all too hard to engage an international student”
“There is sometimes a perception amongst employers that it is all too hard to engage an international student,” said Phil Honeywood, CEO of IEAA.
The document provides employers with a step-by-step guide for working with international students, including best practice for engagement and hiring as well as understanding visa conditions.
The guide was created as one of the key outcomes of IEAA’s 2015 International Employability Symposium.
Director of Nexus Education, Cate Gribble, who compiled the outcome report from the symposium, said it would help to address misconceptions around hiring an international student.
“There are a lot of myths around visas,” she told The PIE News, adding “a lot of companies think it will be either too difficult or too lengthy to hire an international graduate, where as they can hire somebody on a post study work visa for between two and four years.”
Gribble also said many employers incorrectly assume international graduates are more likely to leave a position before their Australian colleagues.
“Hiring any graduate, you can’t expect they’ll stay forever, so to think internationals are going to stay on any less longer than local graduates is probably incorrect.”
The guide also aims to highlight the benefits hiring an international graduate can have to a business.
“[International students’] cultural diversity often generates new ideas and methodologies within the work environment,” said Honeywood.
The guide was the final of three employment guides to come out of the employability symposium with earlier guides focusing on international students and education providers.
