Studying at the Northern Sydney Institute isn’t confined within the four walls of a classroom.
Already this year, business and event management students have had the opportunity to travel to Asia on study tours with the support and financial contributions from the Australian Government Department of Education.
Diploma of Marketing student and TAFE NSW Gili Award winner, Skye Day was one of the ten students chosen to participate in a recent trip to China to visit a partner college of the Institute.
“The experience was amazing! We were immersed in another country, another culture, and in return, I was able to give the students some information about the history of the Aboriginal people and my family,” Ms Day said.
“As a thank you for having us at their college, my grandmother, an Elder of the Dabee Clan of the Wiradjuri nation, hand-made some beanies, headbands and copies of her artwork for me to hand out as gifts,” she said.
Ms Day was part of the Meadowbank Campus Business Services Faculty group comprising students from marketing, management, human resources and international business. The group spent 14 days in China, visiting Shunde Polytechnic where they toured the campus and spent time in class with Chinese students. They also had the opportunity to experience the culture and sights of the country. The tour was structured so students gained credit towards one of their study units.
Accompanying teacher, Carin Hurwitz said outbound student mobility programs such as this are a great opportunity to expand students’ educational experiences.
“I believe our students are more aware of relationship building and the complexities of teams and participation therein where there is significant cultural variation,” she said.
“Our students felt this was an opportunity to really understand the culture better, as there were experiences which could not be replicated if travelling to China for other purposes other than Outbound Mobility.”
The Northern Sydney Institute is planning two more Outbound Mobility trips later in 2014 for early childhood students and tourism and hospitality students.