ACS wants more on-the-job learning for ICT grads

Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 08 September 2009 11:30

IT People - Training

“Many undergraduates have a sense of urgency about finishing their time at University. They don’t recognise how relevant work experience will actually accelerate their careers and help ensure a more satisfying start.”

Debrincat also said that since its launch in August 2001, the ACS Foundation had raised more than $23.5 million and awarded more than 1,650 scholarships.

“We continue to build relationships with our industry partners and look forward to a steady growth in the number of scholarships we award each year to find relevant work experience opportunities for students.

“In the last financial year the ACS Foundation raised more than $4.8 million for scholarships from corporate donors, an increase of more than half a million dollars on the previous year.”

The foundation says that there have been a number of recent surveys of organisations which employ graduates, including a pilot study by the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) which was conducted in conjunction with this graduate study.

According to Debrincat, the AIIA study showed that less than half the employer organisations were satisfied with the personal qualities and interpersonal skills of their recent graduate recruits, and the areas most in need of improvement were communication and problem solving skills.

And, a 2008 paper from Australian university vice-chancellors advocated a national internship scheme to enhance the skills and work readiness of all Australian university graduates.