Overseas Professional Experience

Background

The School of Education has a history of conducting Overseas Professional Experience Programs for UWS students in such countries as Fiji, Cook Islands, Malaysia and China. The opportunity to live and work in another culture broadens and deepens the students' life experiences while encouraging reflection of their role as teachers in their own culture.

Tours

There are two options proposed for 2010. Tours to Ningbo, China and Penang, Malaysia.

The tours are open to all students enrolled in the School of Education and the tours have included students from the AREP, Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary programs. Students may join the tour to complete: a unit such as Professional Experience 3; an assessment component of a unit such as Learning Through Community Service; a non-award unit; or as a career experience not associated with a unit, where the report is added to their portfolio.

The Penang Malaysian tour offers students the opportunity to teach for 10 days in Malaysian schools and to experience the exotic culture of Penang Island. Malaysia has a current policy of teaching mathematics and science in English (although under review) and they welcome English speakers in their school. Schools in Penang use English across all subjects. Students stay in the SEAMEO RECSAM compound (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics). It shares the vast expanse of the campus grounds with the Federal Teachers’ College of Penang in the suburb of Gelugor. It is situated on the city limits of Georgetown, which is the metropolitan capital of the island on the north-western part of Peninsular Malaysia. Australia is still strongly connected to Penang due to the airforce base at Butterworth.

The China tour offers a two week program, staying at accommodation in Ningbo University (opens in a new window) and working in a range of English-speaking activities with Chinese pre-service teachers.

Training required

The leaders of each tour will conduct information and cultural sessions. Students need to complete the usual Child Protection course and if intending to teach will need to have completed at least Professional Experience 1.

Additional information

Students need to make an application via the forms on the vUWS site. Students may complete the PE3 unit and add it to their 2H results or have it as a unit in the 1H semester. (Note: it is actually conducted between semesters). Students are expected to meet their own living costs and any tourist activities outside those included within the tour.

The OPEP site can be found on the SoE student vUWS site. Please follow the link to this site for the photos, forms and communications. Associate Professor Allan White is overall Coordinator of OPEP programs. Strand leaders for each of the current tours will post relevant information on that site.