Melbourne Employability Accelerator
Registration for the next intake of MEA will open on Monday 21 August 2023. If you would like to be notified when registrations open, please sign up here.
Melbourne Employability Accelerator (MEA) is an innovative experience designed to support your career journey. The program is recommended for international undergraduate students in their first or second year. Students across all courses are eligible.
Program details
By engaging in this exciting career building opportunity, you will:
- develop global employability awareness, preparedness and skills
- understand how career mapping can guide you to achieve your personal and professional goals
- develop and apply experiential learning and reflective practices
- work with your project team on a 2-week Digital Industry Project to solve a real-world problem for an industry client
- be awarded a certificate and a digital badge upon completion
Students will be required to commit approximately:
- 10 hours over a period of two weeks to complete Part 1
- 25 hours over a period of two weeks to complete Part 2: the Digital Industry Project
Eligibility
To sign up for the Melbourne Accelerator program, you must be:
- A currently enrolled international student at The University of Melbourne
- Have the appropriate IT and technical resources to successfully participate virtually in the digital program over a period of 2-4 weeks (e.g. laptop and reliable internet connection)
Key dates
There are 3 upcoming intakes for the MEA, specific dates are provided below:
| Date | Event | |
|---|---|---|
Intake 4 | Monday 27 March 2023 | Part 1 program commences |
| Monday 10 April 2023 | Part 2 program commences | |
| Sunday 23 April 2023 | Program concludes | |
Intake 5 | Monday 21 August 2023 | Applications open |
| Sunday 10 September 2023 | Applications close | |
| Monday 23 October 2023 | Part 1 program commences | |
| Monday 6 November 2023 | Part 2 program commences | |
| Sunday 19 November 2023 | Program concludes |
Digital Industry Project
Over the final two weeks of the MEA program, you will have the opportunity to apply your employability skills in a real-world industry setting by participating in the Digital Industry Project
This project will allow you to gain valuable experience and engage in developing a range of employability skills including:
- solve real business problems for client organisations, ranging from starts-ups, small, medium-sized and large enterprises, to Victorian Government agencies and community organisations
- learn to plan and develop a business case, and pitch your ideas to the client organisation
- collaborate with a dynamic and diverse team, working with students across degrees, year levels and disciplines
- Be recognized with Melbourne Plus and receive the Innovation digital badge
- earn a certificate and a digital badge upon completion.
Student experiences
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Zian He
During the past two weeks, I have had a wonderful opportunity in the Digital Industry Projects (DIP) of Melbourne Employability Accelerator (MEA) and Practera. My team and I have worked together as consultants for our client to research the market trend of the organization and seek next step funding sources and partners.
It was great to work with my other four teammates (all from the University of Melbourne) from diverse cultures and educational backgrounds on a project during such an intensive project. Through the program, I have practiced and improved my global skills including service-oriented skills, leadership skills, communication, and collaboration skill.
As part of the team, I would like to say thank you to our client Kylie Dalton for the brief, continuous support and feedback throughout the project. Thanks to Practera for the platform support and training and the University of Melbourne for organizing the Melbourne Employability Accelerator. Our team has been able to deliver a Final Report and presentation with the value and information desired with all these supports.
I hope more people could benefit from the Digital Industry Projects and Melbourne Employability Accelerator in the future.
Vanessa Chan
When opportunities are knocking on your door, respond to them bravely.
If I hadn't participated in Melbourne Employability Accelerator and Digital Industry Project ran by Practera and University of Melbourne, I would have never met these amazing people who would be my good models in my future career.
Firstly, I need to appreciate the trust from our client Australian Culinary Foods Pty Ltd Herman Claassens, who gave our team 100% of support and provided constructive feedback for improvement. I am so grateful to learn a lot about the nutritional yeast industry from him.
Secondly, our incredible Nidhi Sikka is an excellent leader. Communication is the key to success. She tried her best to make sure we were on track, which led to a positive result. She redefined my understanding of leadership: showing rather than telling.
Thirdly, we were fighting with a tight time frame, so we needed to demonstrate our time management skills whilst conducting quality research. And WE MADE IT! All of us were committed to this project, and our corporation turned an impossible mission possible. A massive thank you to all my teammates, including Andrea Aguilar, Xuerui(Sherry) Cheng, Yani Lyu, Linggar Andaru and Wangpeng Gui.
In the project, I researched the opportunities and trends of the product. Observation of global customers behaviour was challenging as it required cultural consciousness, how other people are different from ourselves. Hence, the research increases my sensibility to their opinion, which helps me future journalism practice. The project taught me there are many solutions for one issue, but the point is that we need to jump out from the restrictions set by ourselves.
Anushka Kavil
Over the last two weeks, I got an exciting opportunity to participate in the Digital Industry Project through the Melbourne Employability Accelerator Program.
With applicants from the entire University of Melbourne, I was fortunate to be selected amongst the few for this project. I was connected with 4 other students from varied universities across Australia. Our role for this two-week project was to act as business consultants for a client. We were engaged in an international market research and performed market analysis, competitor analysis, targeted consumer analysis and recommendations and opportunities to expand product and service offering.
This program provided me an opportunity to utilize my knowledge, skills learned through my Bachelors and Masters of Urban Planning degree at the University of Melbourne so far. I gained real-life application of business operations, and further develop my employablity skills such as problem-solving, leadership and innovation. It also pushed me to be culturally conscious when working in a diverse group.
I would like to thank the University of Melbourne and Practera for providing me this extremely wonderful and rewarding opportunity.
A massive thanks to my team members Nadya Marvelyn To, Thilini Koralegedara, Muhammad Hamza Khan Niazi and Freda Liu for their constant support and determination.
Also, thanks a lot to Akshara for suggesting me this great opportunity.
Frequently asked questions
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Is MEA free? Is the whole MEA program online?
Yes, the MEA is a free, voluntary, extra-curricular skills development opportunity recommended for international undergraduate students in their first or second year.
The MEA is a completely online program and will require you to have the appropriate IT and technical resources to successfully participate in the digital program over a period of 2-4 weeks to participate (e.g. laptop and reliable internet connection).
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Does MEA have prerequisites? Is MEA a selected program?
No, the MEA does not have any prerequisites or a selection process to participate in the program.
The strength of the MEA is its diversity. It is open to all University of Melbourne international students, across all degrees and disciplines, and gives students the opportunity to work with other students from different backgrounds. -
What is the time commitment for the MEA program?
MEA is designed in two parts, students will be required to commit approximately:
- 10 hours over a period of two weeks to complete Part 1
- 25 hours over the final two weeks to complete Part 2: the Digital Industry Project
The MEA is a self-directed program and students can pace themselves according to their own needs when completing the activities in the app, all time commitments are estimates and will depend on how much time you as an individual are prepared to invest.
There are scheduled events and also the Digital Industry Project which will require further commitment and coordination between yourself, your team-mates and your client.
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Will we have a mentor in the program?
No, you will not have a mentor during your MEA experience.
The Practera team will support you throughout the MEA program, you can reach out to the team if you have any questions or concerns by email, Wechat, or the WhatsApp business account at +61 412 953 586.
You will also be assigned a real industry client in Part 2, the Digital Industry Project, clients are mainly from Australian organisations.
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What is the Digital Industry Project Orientation session?
This session is exclusive for those who choose to complete the Digital Industry Project. Attendance is mandatory and you will only be able to complete the Digital Industry Project if you attend.
You will find information about how the MEA program, app and experiences work discussed in the ‘Welcome to the Melbourne Employability Accelerator’ topic within the MEA app.
During the orientation session, you will be provided with all the information you need to successfully complete the client project and to hear from a panel of industry employers.
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What course level/career stage is the MEA program meant for?
The activities in the MEA career accelerator are designed to prepare all students for the employment landscape by providing fundamental tools and resources. While you may already be aware of the strategies presented, we recommend you use the career accelerator as an opportunity to deepen your understanding and reflect on your overall career readiness.
Engaging in the Digital Industry Project will be a valuable experience no matter how qualified you are, it will be an opportunity for you to demonstrate your transferable employability skills as you collaborate with your team to solve a real business problem for an industry client.
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When will I find out about my team for the Digital Industry Project?
You will receive further information about the Digital Industry Project, including your team, client and project details following the ‘Digital Industry Project Orientation’ session (only those who attend will be able to participate in this experience). You will be supported throughout your consulting project by Practera.
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When will I get the MEA digital badge and e-certificate?
You will receive your MEA badge and e-certificate (and also Digital Industry Project badge if you successfully participated) as soon as you have completed the ‘Participant feedback Survey’ within the MEA app.
Contact us
If you have any questions about the MEA program, please send them through to programs@practera.com.
Study Melbourne International Education Resilience Fund
Melbourne Employability Accelerator has been made possible by funding from the Victorian Government through the Study Melbourne International Education Resilience Fund. MEA is a voluntary, extra-curricular skills development opportunity delivered in partnership by Student Success and edtech platform, Practera.