By Ellie Robinson | 19 January 2021
Employability.life is an exciting new ATMC venture, providing students with practical industry skills and knowledge for life after education.
This new service provides students with industry skills and knowledge to prepare them for life after graduation, ensuring they are ready for the workplace in a rapidly changing industry 4.0 world.
Sessions began this semester with two coaches, Simi Arora and Marketa Moses. Employability.life is available to all ATMC, Baxter and AUPP students. Classes run every Tuesday (Simi) and Wednesday (Marketa) at 5.30pm IST (11pm AEDT) until February 10, with recordings and course work uploaded to the LMS for all to access.
Simi is an established life coach and yoga teacher from New York, whose mission is to help people unleash their truest power to create a growth mindset, emotional resilience and joy in their lives.
Simi’s sessions focus on self-mastery and engaging students to believe they can achieve the career they desire by learning skills like public speaking, setting goals and having a purpose.
Marketa has worked across four continents and has extensive global experience in coaching first-time hires and start-up entrepreneurs. She has worked closely with IBM, Grant Thornton, 3M, Honeywell, Deloitte and other global companies to prepare entry-level talent.
Marketa’s sessions include Career Coaching, covering aspects such as CV writing and developing effective LinkedIn profiles. Marketa’s guest teachers include HR and career coach Ana Vreca, who informs students as to what is looked for by employers when hiring, as well as very well connected professionals Joshua Stroup (IT) and Scott Schwab (leadership and business development).
Simi and Marketa’s students have been encouraged to make connections from these Employability.life sessions and to start building a rapport with industry professionals who can help them on their career journey when they have completed their degree. Students have benefitted from ideas, insights and insider access across a range of professional spheres.
Life coach Simi Arora (left) and career coach Marketa Moses (right) are helping to improve the professional prospects of ATMC students.
Participation and interaction has been extremely positive and has generated lots of conversation between students and coaches. Throughout the weekly sessions, students have noticeably gained more confidence in asking questions and identifying aspects where they can improve and how they would go about this.
A recent survey sent out to students asked them to rate their English proficiency: 59.6 percent out of 47 students said they lacked confidence in speaking English in a professional setting. This information is important, as all participating students will need to speak English in order to pursue a career wherever in the world they are working.
Employability.life will be able to use such information for a series of webinars which will educate students on the English language, grammar, punctuation and mock interviews, thus adding to their employability.
Students were also asked what their desired career sector is. A vast majority pointed to Information Technology, an ever-growing and changing sector, with more and more new jobs (UX Designer, for example) created as we enter the Fourth Industry Revolution. These new positions are in high demand, with impeccable customer experience required by applicants if they are to stand out from their competitors.
Providing students with awareness about the opportunities in UX early on in their degree will ensure they are ready for new career possibilities. Employability.life is encouraging this by having those in the know provide a look into their career, how they got there and what is needed to succeed. Students will be given the chance to speak to someone who may have their dream job and find out the ins and outs to ensure it is the right career path for them.
The end objective of Employability.life is to have a dedicated virtual career service, with industry professionals encouraging growth and ambition in a supportive environment.
If you would like any further information on these sessions, please email Ellie Robinson at employability@atmc.edu.au