7 practical skills to learn before arriving in Australia as an international student
Before travelling out of your country as an international student, there are certain essential skills you need to learn.
In this article, we’re going to discuss the top 7 practical skills you need to learn before coming to Australia.
1. Cooking Skills
As an international student, you must learn to cook some basic foods for yourself.
Many students are already familiar with some cooking, but there are many international students in Australia who do not know how to cook their own food when they arrive. Most of the students don’t even have any family or friends who can assist them in cooking.
When you arrive here without cooking skills, it becomes a nightmare as it is extremely expensive to eat outside.
You’ll have to prepare food for yourself and most of the time, many students end up eating only noodles, pastas, and cereals to survive, which isn’t healthy to eat on a regular basis.
To ensure that you survive as an international student and not eat out or prepare unhealthy meals regularly, make sure you get some cooking lessons from your mother or other family members who are good cooks before coming to Australia.
2. Driving Skills
If you’re going to study in the suburban or city areas, you will be perfectly okay travelling around using public transport.
Having a bicycle can also be helpful, however you’ll eventually need to drive a car. If you can obtain a full driving license before coming to Australia, that would be extremely helpful.
If you can afford to buy a car, it will help you save time commuting from home to work or university.
Some jobs may even require you to have a car because they begin too early in the morning or too late at night when public transport is unavailable.
So it is ideal if you can get some driving lessons or preferably a driving license from your home country before coming to Australia.
3. Computing Skills
Most of the students who arrive in Australia usually have decent computing skills. However, there are few students who shy away from learning new technologies and new software programs.
In Australia, you won’t be able to get away without having at least some basic computing skills.
You will need these basic skills to apply for anything online, including your TFN, ABN, job applications, your bank accounts and many other government services.
Most universities and colleges will expect you to submit assessments online, so learning about some basic software like Word Excel, PowerPoint can really help in your studies.
Improving your typing skills will help you to save a lot of time. It will even be better if you can learn some advanced shortcuts that can make your life easier so that you can do your assessments faster.
Even if you are not into technology, it is still a must-have skill for international students planning to study in Australia.
4. Laundry Skills
As an international student, it is important to learn how to clean your house, clean your bed, tidy up your room and do your own laundry.
The laundry itself is a big exercise which includes cleaning, drying, folding and ironing your clothes, linens etc.
All these things are basic skills, unfortunately many international students don’t know about them or don’t learn them while they are at home.
You can get that laundry done from various laundry services but it is a very expensive exercise which many international students can’t afford to use.
5. Time Management Skills
As an international student, you will need to learn how to manage your time effectively as you will be juggling between your work, your studies and your life.
You will be on your own most of the time and you won’t have family members to help you with certain tasks. You’ll have to go to work, come home, cook for yourself, study, and call your parents all on the same day. This can take a significant amount of time and effort.
It can be a nightmare to manage all of these things in your life if you don’t properly plan your day and week.
In order to effectively manage your time, you will need to create a weekly schedule for the week’s major tasks.
This could include:
- What tasks need to be completed during the week?
- When will you be working?
- Which days do you have classes?
- When do you need to submit assessment tasks and prepare for them?
- Which days can you call your family and friends back home?
- Which days can you catch up with your friends in Australia?
- And many other ad-hoc tasks during the normal work week.
Making a schedule will be highly beneficial, and it will be even more beneficial if you can learn to manage these things before arriving in Australia.
Check our infographic on how to manage time using the Pomodoro Technique
6. Communication Skills
English is the most commonly spoken language in Australia. Everyday aspects of life in Australia including finding jobs, making friends, talking to lecturers, asking questions to tutor, etc. will all be in English itself.
Most international students are required to take IELTS/ PTE/ TOEFL/ CAE or some other format of English test before arriving.
It is very important that you keep improving your English language while you are still overseas.
You can do so by watching mostly English TV shows, English movies, or reading English newspapers, magazines, or online articles.
We have a playlist of hundreds of videos on our YouTube channel, which you can watch regularly, or you can read some articles on our website.
Doing some of these things can help improve your English and your vocabulary.
You should also learn and get familiar with some popular Australian slangs before arriving in Australia.
7. Budgeting and Personal Finance Skills
As an international student, you make money based on the number of hours you work.
With all the money you are making, you might think it’s a great time to go shopping, watch movies, or do other fun activities; however you have to remember that you have a lot of expenses to deal with as well.
You must pay your rent, groceries, and other living expenses, as well as tuition fees.
It is important to learn how to manage your monthly income and expenses, so you don’t end up asking for a large sum of money from your friends or family back home.
Make a personal budget spreadsheet for yourself before coming to Australia, so you can start managing your finances from the day you arrive here.
Read our student guide on how to avoid Debt Trap as an international student.
So these are the top seven practical skills to learn before arriving in Australia. Let us know what other skills you think international students should learn before coming to Australia. We would love to hear from you via our Instagram page here.
