Industry Meets Private Sector Australia Awards Students from Indonesia

Vica Tendenan, an Australia Awards PhD student from Indonesia, spoke at an Australia Indonesia Business Council (AIBC) networking event specifically for Australia Awards Scholarships recipients from Indonesia, held at the UNSW City Campus in Sydney on 28 September 2017.  Vica, who is the Director of DEFINIT located in Yogyakarta and already a Masters graduate from the University of Sydney, spoke of the importance of Australia Awards alumni using their considerable skills and networks to create their own employment outcome when returning to Indonesia.  In her role at DEFINIT, Vica spoke of the importance of being able to tap into the Australia Awards in Indonesia's alumni network which has resulted in three senior managers in DEFINIT being Australia university graduates.  Vica is currently in her first year of her PhD studies at the University of Sydney Business School.

Joining Vica as presenters at the AIBC-Australia Awards in Indonesia networking event were Professor Richard Dunford, Associate Dean, International and External Relations from UNSW and Sally Dickson, Group Head of Organisational Effectiveness from Coca-Cola Amatil. All three speakers emphasised the need for graduates from Australian universities to use their combined s kills acquired through studying and living in Australia in their professional networking and job hunting when they returned to Indonesia.

Vica Tendenan (4th from RHS) with AAI short term and long term awardees at the AIBC-AAI networking event in Sydney September 2017

Also joining the networking event were a number of Australia Awards in Indonesia' short course participants attending a ‘Transformation Business Leadership’ two-week course at The University of Sydney.  All of the participants in the short course had graduated from Australian universities, many from Australia Awards Scholarships (and its predecessor program Australia Development Scholarships) and all working in the private sector in Indonesia.  The combination of short course participants (all currently working in Indonesia) and long term awardees (currently studying in Australia but with an eye on employment prospects upon returning to Indonesia) provided for interesting discussions and potentially beneficial networking opportunities.

Australia Awards in Indonesia in conjunction with AIBC plans to roll out further networking events in other states of Australia in 2018.