International Student Life

Skill development seminar series

Professional communication
skills for the workplace
Thursday 1 September 2016

CRICOS 00111D TOID 3059

Welcome
Olivia Doyle
International Student Advisor – Employability

Tel 9214 8248

Email odoyle@swin.edu.au
 Swinburne

International Student Life – Employability Support

Specialist support for international students aiming to work in partnership with you
to develop your employability

 Monthly Employability Newsletter

 Regular program of employability seminars

 Skill development

 Student appointments

 Industry connections

 Networking events

 Australian workplace cultural events

 Job Club

3
International student employability events Swinburne
Semester 2 2016

Professional communication skills for job search

WRITTEN & VERBAL
Thursday 1 September

Australian workplace culture & etiquette

Monday 5 September

Alumni guest speaker speed networking

Wednesday 28 September PLUS
MORE
Completion of studies EVENTS
Friday 7 October

Professional job search intensive

Tuesday 22 November
What skills and
attributes do
employers look for
in a graduate….
 Employer expectations activity Swinburne

RANK Ordered Key Selection Criteria

1 Communication skills 49%

2 Academic results 24%

3 Teamwork skills 22%

4 Aptitude 22%

5 Interpersonal skills 21%

6 Leadership skills 20%

7 Work experience 20%

8 Cultural fit 19%

9 Motivational fit 18%

10 Adaptable 14%

Source: Graduate Outlook 2014, Graduate Careers Australia

SCIENCE | TECHNOLOGY | INNOVATION | BUSINESS | DESIGN

 Learning and Academic Skills (LAS) Centre
WORKSHOPS
• 3 a week Drop-in consultations
• weeks 1-6 & week • 12-8pm M-Th; and
11 12-4pm Fr - in the
library during
In one subject last
semester
semester, students that
attended 8 or more
Find out more • 12-4pm at all other
times
workshop averaged an
HD while those who
about LAS • Ask LAS staff or student learning
assistants quick questions about
attended at least 4 or your assignments, writing or
more averaged a studies
distinction.
CONVERSATION GROUP
APPOINTMENTS
for international students
• individual or group
• develop your language
• 1 hour a week
• make friends
• academic, language
• learn about
& literacy
Melbourne’s culture
development lashawthorn@swin.edu.au
9214 5583 Everyday 12.30-1.30,
Discuss and improve your
swin.edu.au/las improve your speaking,
assignments and writing
listening and vocabulary.
 Other communication support Swinburne

 Toastmasters
Meetings
Free resources
http://www.melbournetoastmasters.com/

 CAE Business English - Speaking for Professionals

8 sessions
$466 concession
http://www.cae.edu.au/courses/business-english-speaking-for-professionals-sc/

 English Conversation Club

Local libraries
Eg City of Boroondara – free weekly sessions with a qualified tutor

SCIENCE | TECHNOLOGY | INNOVATION | BUSINESS | DESIGN

 Swinburne

• Talking Circles’ - International Student Hub run by City of Melbourne

Practice conversation for the workplace in a small group with corporate volunteers

Talking circles focus on workplace themes and conversing effectively

New series starting in October

• Salvation Army Camberwell – English Pronunciation Class

Communication skills expert

Fridays – gold coin donation

• Professional associations
Eg Australian Computer Society – Toastmasters, Communication skills seminars

SCIENCE | TECHNOLOGY | INNOVATION | BUSINESS | DESIGN

 Plan for today Swinburne

Jill Noble
• HR and careers practitioner
• Published author
• Key note speaker and trainer

1.30 – 2.30 pm
Written communication skills

2.30 – 3.30 pm
Verbal communication skills

SCIENCE | TECHNOLOGY | INNOVATION | BUSINESS | DESIGN

Professional Communication
Skills
 Agenda for today
• Oral communication and job seeking
• Written communication and business writing
principles
WHO
 Networking
• Networking is simply talking to people
• People like to help people
• If you are either a good listener or a good talker
you can network
• Use positive body language during networking -
maintain eye contact
 Networking
What is it? Where can you do it?
Networking- how it all works
1. Closed questions:
◦ Get a one-word response and inhibit thought.
◦ Control situation and confirm details
◦ Questions begin with who, when and which

2. Open-ended questions:
Invite unique thought, reflection or an explanation.
Show interest and build rapport
Questions begin with how, what and how come
(not why!).

PIVOTAL HR
Job Search
 Persuasive & diplomatic techniques
• Modal verbs
• Modifiers
• Passive voice
• Suggestions
• Continuous tense
 Telephone
• Quality tone – BL & position
• Pause-smile-answer
• Energy level
• Greeting & introduce self
• Offer of help
• Rule of 3 – names
• Use listening process to summarise, clarify and
confirm
• Take notes
• What not to say…..
 Telephone listening skills

4 Step Listening Process

• Attending – Focus, BL
• Reflecting - Summarize
• Clarifying - Questioning
• Active – Notes, noises & neck!
Tongue twisters
• A phrase, sentence or rhyme that presents
difficulties when spoken because it contains
similar sounds
Examples:
 She sells seashells on the seashore.
 Three gray geese in the green grass grazing
 Nine nice night nurses nursing nicely

PIVOTAL HR
V sounds

To pronounce the /v/ sound, place

the bottom edges of your upper
teeth gently on the inside of your
lower lip. Push the voiced air out of
the mouth between the lower lip
and the upper teeth. Make sure
your voice is on (vocal cords are
vibrating).
Th sound

To pronounce the voiced /th/

sound, keep your mouth slightly
open so there is just enough space
to place the tip of your tongue
between your upper and lower
teeth. Flatten the tip of your tongue
and touch the tip of your upper
teeth. Push out a voiced air over
the tongue through your teeth.
Make sure your voice is on (vocal
cords are vibrating).
 Stress
• Stressed words are the key to excellent pronunciation
and understanding of English.
• Stress is where a word or syllable is louder, long and
higher in pitch than another word or syllable
• Basically, stress words are considered

CONTENT WORDS such as

• Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter
• (most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct
 Stress
Non-stressed words are considered
FUNCTION WORDS such as
• Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few
• Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were
• Prepositions e.g. before, next to,
opposite
• Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as
• Pronouns e.g. they, she, us
 Compare the two
• The beautiful Mountain appeared
transfixed in the distance . (14 syllables)

He can come on Sundays as long as he

doesn't have to do any homework in the
evening . (22 syllables)
 Practice
• He drove to work after he had finished
working in the garden.
• You'll find the apples next to the oranges on
the shelf over there.
• Maggie must have been visiting her aunt in
Springtown last weekend.
• Could you pass me the mustard, please?
• They have been considering buying a new car
as soon as they have saved enough money.
Written Communication Skills
 Letters and Emails
• Subject lines are headlines
• - never leave the subject line blank
• Make one point per email
• - Clear and Concise
• Specify the response you want
• Be a good correspondent
 Key features of a report
Reports:
• are designed for quick and easy communication
of information
• are designed for selective reading
• use sections with numbered headings and
subheadings
• use figures and diagrams to convey data.
Active and Passive
What is Active Voice?
 The Active Voice shows the reader who is doing what. The
‘agent’ is placed before the verb.
For example:‘The engineer rewrote the report’

What is Passive Voice?

 The Passive Voice gives the activity centre stage and often
leaves out the ‘agent’.
For example: ‘The report was rewritten’(by the engineer)
 Active or passive
• The board were provided the papers.

• We provide the papers to the board.

• The board received the paper.

 Avoid overusing noun forms
Use verbs when possible rather than noun forms known as
nominalizations.

Unclear (use of nominalization):

 The implementation of the plan was successful.
Clearer:
 The plan was implemented successfully.
 Noun forms
His courageousness filled us with admiration.

We admired his courage.

Avoid using nouns instead of verbs
NOT PLAIN ENGLISH PLAIN ENGLISH
He used to help in the specification of new
He used to help specify new software
software
Measurement of static software properties The tool measured static software
was performed by the tool properties
Clicking the icon causes the execution of The program executes when the icon is
the program clicked
The analysis of the software was
Fred analysed the software
performed by Fred
The testing of the software was carried
Jane tested the software
out by Jane
It was reported by Jones that method x
Jones reported that method x helped the
facilitated the utilisation of inspection
testing team use inspection techniques
techniques by the testing team
 Which one attracts your eye?
References References
Your ref/Our ref are a codified system of
referencing used by most businesses in Your ref/Our ref goes top left of the
their business correspondence. Most codes letter or under the reference line. It
are alphanumeric and correspond with assists filing for both parties.
codes in the business’s paper and/or
electronic filing system. Learn your
business’s coding system. If you are
initiating the correspondence, place the
appropriate reference code on your first
letter. If you are responding to somebody
else’s letter, include their reference code
and then include your own. Doing so assists
your record keeping. Some businesses place
the reference codes after the subject line.
This assists with filing and record handling
as all necessary details are captured in the
one place at the beginning of the letter.
39
 ACCIS Computing
124 Bay Road
Port Melbourne VIC 3207
Tel 03 9856 7435
12 July 2011

Mr T B Bowers
Florentino’s Restaurant
34 Parker Street
BRIGHTON VIC 3186

Dear Trevor
W
Systems upgrade
Why
Thank you for your enquiry concerning the upgrade of your existing computing system.

I have attached a proposal to meet your needs and it includes the following:
capacity details
time frames
equipment
I
warranty details Information
costing.

I will telephone you early next week to discuss this proposal and answer any queries you may
have. N
Yours sincerely Now take this action

Philip Howard
Managing Director

Enc 1
CC: Martin Chapman, CEO Accis Computing 40
 Conversational style
OLD FASHIONED CONTEMPORARY

I refer to your letter… Thank you for your letter…

Please find enclosed… I have attached…
Contact this office… Please contact me…
We are in receipt of… We have received…
Applying your learnings