Trying to achieve what you want to achieve
“It is a hard period of time being on a bridging visa, being in a period of uncertainty and not knowing where to go and what it is you want,” says Shu Qing, who secured PR in March.
“Treat it as a period of soul-searching and endurance testing,” she advises.
Shu Qing will start with a big-four financial institution next year as a graduate employee.
“In fact I don’t even know that my grad job actually will be an ideal job, but I’ve had some fun and interesting times, learning about myself and figuring out what works best for me.”
She has no regrets about staying.
“I developed my own sense of identity which I would not have developed had I studied in Malaysia, for various reasons. I grew closer to an environment which I believe has contributed to my formative years, and an environment which has made me believe in the person I am right now.”
Annie Zhang also doesn’t regret emigrating.
“I was a very brave person, taking a challenge. And travelling around the world seemed to be a very good idea, and trying to do everything by myself seemed to be really attractive.”
Sharinder Sidhu came to Australia to “experience something else”.
“It wasn’t like I have to stay in Australia and get permanent residency,” she says. “I had a chat with my parents, saying, ‘If I get a job, I would love to stay in Australia a lot. But, if not, I’ll come home. It’s fine.’
“I just ended up getting a casual job which had full-time hours and I just wanted to get into HR, and I did it.”
Early familiarity with English leads to better outcomes
Research shows that language proficiency is a stumbling block for graduates seeking a “proper job”, particularly those from places where English is not used in secondary school.
“At the university level it is not lack of familiarity with the labour market (especially for accountants) but rather lack of English language communication skills that is the problem,” says Dr Bob Birrell of Monash University in an email.
In a 2008 study, Dr Birrell and co-author Ernest Healy show that students from mainland China and Hong Kong have a particularly low level of English.
The study looks at how shortages of qualified jobseekers in the workforce cannot be filled by tertiary-educated international students who are vigorously recruited by universities.
It finds that some firms ask for proof of English-language proficiency on the basis of a far higher test result than is required for university admission.
For example, to apply for a job at Ernst & Young, a leading accounting firm, graduates must have minimum International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scores of 8 for listening, 8 for speaking, 7.5 for writing and 7.5 for reading.
The popular IELTS scores people in four bands, where a score of 9 indicates native competency.
“The analysis does not remove the possibility that employer prejudice is involved in the employment difficulties of overseas students,” states the report. “Some employers may be using the cloak of poor English skills to mask prejudice towards overseas students.”
But Immigration Department figures demonstrate the mismatch that can exist between what graduates seeking permanent residency want and their English competency.
The proportion in 2006-07 who achieved the level 6 IELTS score required to gain 20 points toward PR, was a dismal 55 percent among those from mainland China. The figure for Hong Kongers was equally low at 56 percent.
For Malaysia and Singapore, where English is used for secondary education, the figures were 81 percent and 98 percent, respectively.
The experience of Ju-En Tan, 25, from Singapore, shows the advantage of being taught in English at secondary level. Ju-En studied medical science at the University of Sydney, where she is again enrolled, this time in medicine.
“I think it has made it a bit easier to assimilate, I guess,” she says. “You don’t stand out as much. You’re not too different from people at uni and that kind of makes it a bit easier, I think.
“I guess, being able to speak English really helps because then people are friendlier.”
* Name changed to mask the person’s identity.
Matthew da Silva writes feature stories to fulfil a dream after working in communications and technical writing roles for two decades. He grew up in Sydney, lived in Japan for nine years and now lives on the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland. He blogs daily at Happy Antipodean.
Mingming Feng assisted with research for this article.
