Australia’s first ever virtual national careers expo

Torrens University Australia has joined forces with universities and higher education institutions to organise the nation’s first ever virtual careers expo.

The joint effort, driven by Torrens University marks a timely leveraging of technology to bring careers information to students.

“The guiding principle here is that this year’s Year 12 students will be experiencing a significant gap in information access because of cancellations,” says Torrens University Australia President Linda Brown.

“Normally, the students would attend an expo and be presented with 80 or 90 higher education institutions exhibiting. The students would walk around, guided by their interests and talk to people they feel can give them information for their future.

“But now, we will have a platform that allows those interactions to take place online. Not just that, it will have a national focus.”

The Virtual Careers Expo will offer an experience similar to what Year 12 students encounter at careers expos in their cities. The expo platform itself will hold up to 5,000 concurrent attendees and timeslots will be allocated special presentations.

Presentations will be scheduled by state and by regions so that schools are aware when they should be on the platforms so there is no drop in quality or user experience.

Brown says the importance of assessing career options and moving from institution to institution, side by side cannot be underestimated.

“The website is static content. So they will click on a website. They will go through and read a few pages. What a website doesn’t have is the element of presentation and display. At the Virtual Career Expo, students will watch a live presentation, just as in a physical expo.

“Each will have something ‘really cool’ to show. Each will have the opportunity to ‘govern the floor’ and present to a live audience.”

The expo will take place on the 7th and 8th of May and is expected to attract thousands of students from across Australia to a virtual expo showcasing more than 40 institutions.

“They will be able to interact. They will be able to view video content. They can get a feel of our campuses through guided tours online, just as they would be able to do in a physical expo. Right now, we are also looking at how we can replicate the virtual reality gadgets students explore at physical expos,” she says.

 “There will also be an inclusive parents’ section, where they can come and talk through their options or their concerns with the other institutions and with us."

More than 40 institutions are participating in the virtual careers expo, including Torrens University (Qld, NSW, Vic, SA), University of Wollongong (NSW), Monash University (Vic), Deakin University (Vic), Macquarie University (NSW), Charles Sturt University (NSW), Charles Darwin University (NT), Bond University (QLD), University of Tasmania (Tas), Murdoch University (WA), Federation University (Vic), Flinders University (SA), Defence Force Recruiting, TAFE and Macleay College (Vic), along with a host of vocational providers and private colleges.

Registrations open for the Virtual Careers Expo on 8 April 2020 at https://www.torrens.edu.au/about/virtual-careers-expo.