Two Australian education institutes are headed to Greece to inform Greeks wanting to migrate to Australia about what they need to do to study here.
Representatives from Australian Industrial Systems Institute (AISI) and Institute of Tertiary and Higher Education Australia (ITHEA) will be conducting information sessions on how someone can apply for their courses, what type of study is involved, what life is like in Australia and what the visa requirements are.
Roula Tsiolas, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of AISI, said these session were organised as a response to requests they were receiving as a result of the Australian Government’s Skills Australia Needs expo. Both agencies are holding the sessions independently of the Skills Australia Needs sessions.
Tsiolas told Neos Kosmos that the requests AISI had received came from people who, in some cases, weren’t considered for the expo “given their lack of qualifications and experience of some of those individuals”. “With all the queries, we thought we could possibly go recruit some people for training which will make them more eligible applications for their visa,” Tsiolas said.
She said this is an initiative of AISI, “responding to the needs of people who have called through” and enquired about skilled education training in Australia. AISI will be offering free information seminars to Greeks for courses in automotive, building and construction, business and English language.
Another institute, ITHEA, is also organising a series of information sessions in Athens and Thessaloniki for prospective students wishing to study in English in Australia.
Peter Jasonides, Managing Director of ITHEA, told Neos Kosmos that ITHEA is getting a lot of queries from Greeks receiving the wrong information on migrating to Australia. He said that through these sessions ITHEA plans to set the record straight.
“With this misinformation [the students] are getting, they are not able to make a calculated decision. And it’s not just about the education in Australia, it’s about life in Australia as well. These people are used to a completely different lifestyle than what we have in Australia. So those sorts of things they need to be aware of before they make the huge plunge to migrating to Australia,” said Jasonides.
He said the main queries ITHEA receives are: what courses do they have available; what is it like to study in Australia; what is life like here; what are the visa requirements to study here, and how would they enrol.
AISI’s information sessions will be held in Athens on the 8 and 9 October and ITHEA’s sessions will be held in the two major Greek cities of Athens and Thessaloniki between the 2 and 14 October. For more information, visit ITHEA at ithea.vic.edu.au and AISI at aisi.edu.au/