A Complete Guide about Professional Year Program in Australia
If you are planning to do a professional year program in Australia and might be wondering how does it work, what are the entry requirements, what documents are required to get started and many more questions about it.
Luckily, you are at the right place.
As in this article, we are going to give you a complete guide about professional year program in Australia for international students.
Let’s discuss about what is professional year and how it works
What is a professional year program in Australia?
Professional year program (PYP) is a 44 to 52 week structured job readiness program for International students. It help international students to learn about Australian workplace culture and help them with a professional career growth.
It is a combination of both coursework and an internship.
Usually the coursework goes around 32 weeks and the internship can be anywhere from 10 to 12 weeks.
This program is designed for international students who have recently graduated from an Australian university.
The overall aim of this program is to help International students to become more employable in Australia.
Who can do a professional year program in Australia?
If you are a graduate of an accounting degree or an IT degree or an engineering degree then you can do a professional year program.
The professional year program is developed by the following professional organisations in Australia:
- Accounting program is developed by CPA, CA and IPA Australia
- IT program is developed by ACS (Australian Computer Society) and
- Engineering professional year program is developed by EEA (Engineering Education Australia)
So the students from these 3 streams can do a professional year program in Australia.
What are entry requirements for a professional year program in Australia?
These are some of the basic entry requirements to get into professional year program in Australia:
- You must have completed an IT, accounting or engineering degree.
- You must demonstrate a English language proficiency (by scoring at least 6.0 in your IELTS test or equivalent in other tests).
- You must also have a valid skills assessment from the relevant Authority. It could be either CPA or CA or IPA for accounting students, ACS for IT students or EEA for engineering students.
- You must have applied or have got a temporary graduate visa (subclass 485)
- Some providers will actually conduct an interview as well with the applicants
What are the documents required to get into professional year program in Australia?
In order to apply for this program, these are some of the documents you will need:
- a completed application form for the Institute you’re planning to apply
- a certified copy of your passport
- your CV or resume with your application
- a valid skills assessment result from a relevant Authority
- evidence of your English proficiency level which is your English test scores
- copy of your current visa
- copy of your academic documents along with your application
How much it costs to do a professional year program in Australia?
The cost of completing a professional year program will vary depending upon the city or the state you are in and the Institute you are planning to do this program from and any promotions run by these institutes.
But here is rough guide about how much it might cost you to complete this program:
- Accounting professional year program can start from $6000 to $13000
- IT professional year can start anywhere from $10000 onwards
- Engineering professional year can starts around $13000 onwards
Keep in mind that these are estimations and the numbers can vary depending upon the factors mentioned above.
What do you actually learn in the professional year program in Australia?
As we mentioned earlier, this program is a combination of both coursework and internship.
The coursework is more like a theory classes, which is usually around 32 weeks. And for those 32 weeks, you will be going to a class at least once a week.
It’s a full day which can go anywhere from 9 00 am to 5 PM.
During these 32 weeks you learn about different topics that includes
- Workplace communication
- Learning about working in teams
- Australian work environments
- Workplace Health and safety
- Customer service
- Personal Career Development
- Preparing for employment markets
- Learning about your resume and cover letters
Now the internship usually go from 10 to 12 weeks and for this internship you will be working in an Australian based business.
You’re usually required to go at least 3 times in a week for those 10 to 12 weeks of the internship placement.
You can find your own internship but if you can’t find one then your education provider will help you to find this internship.
Keep in mind that most of the time these internships are unpaid.
What are the benefits of doing a professional year program in Australia?
Let’s discuss some benefits of completing a professional year program in Australia.
- One of the main benefit that many International students look forward to get from this program is 5 additional points for the migration purposes. And these 5 points can be really critical in order to get those sort of visas.
- Apart from that it helps International students to become more employable in Australia.
- This program also help International students to improve their their soft skills like communication leadership and teamwork.
- It also helps International students to learn more about how the Australian workplaces operate and what the workplace culture is like in Australia.
- As students will be working in professional work environment, it can help them expnad their professional and social network,
- Internships can also become a pathway to full-time positions as well. If you show your work commitment, ethics and professionalism to your employer during the internship, then this internship can sometimes actually turn into a full-time employment as well. It can give a great start for your career in Australia.
- Even if students don’t score the job through internship, it gives them a professional work experience and references that they can use for applying for jobs.
Now that’s pretty much everything you need to know about the professional year program in Australia.
We hope this guide helped you to understand better about professional year program. Let us know if you are planning to do this program as well in the comment section below.
