Performance Education. In business for over 14 years, the company mission is to "revolutionise graduate employability in Australia, equipping our students with the tools for success through training and quality industry networks".
The company has been innovating graduate employment and kick-starting careers for years, and as top industry recruiters, it saw graduates "struggling to enter the competitive job market.
"Although they were equipped with fresh technical knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm, graduates were hindered by a lack of workplace skills and experience".
PE offers "professional Year programs" which combine its expertise in recruitment, training and professional services to give graduates the skills and qualities that employers look for in prospective candidates.
Impressively PE also notes it works with over 6,600 industry partners who it says "are passionate about improving employability for the next generation, giving our graduates the real-world experience they need to thrive".
As "Australia’s largest Professional Year provider, with campuses across 4 cities and classes running 7 days a week", PE can legitimately claim to have "changed the lives and improved the employability of over 22,600 graduates" – and they’re still going strong empowering graduates - and also doing so in the age of COVID-19, which is something we spoke to David about in the video interview, embedded below.
The company has also featured twice in the "BRW Fast Starters list" during the first 12 years of its existence, and proudly boasts it has "since grown to become recognised as an industry leader, delivering outstanding employment outcomes to thousands of graduates across Australia".
In my video interview, I introduced David Phua, CEO of Performance Education, and welcomed to the program, asking David to tell us a bit about the company's history.
We spoke about choosing the right students to become interns at the right companies, and what both parties need to know about the process and choosing each other.
We looked at the type and number of companies that PE works with, and even the percentage of interns that go on to become employees of the companies they're interning at, and whether the internship is paid, or not.
COVID-19 was obviously discussed, given that many interns could not actually go to offices any more, and how this experience should have strengthen them right at the start of their careers in a way that few other events over recent times would have been able to do.
David shared some interesting intern stories, and then I asked him how the market and students will evolve through to 2030. He also shared some great advice he has received in life, and his final message to iTWire viewers and readers and to the companies and students that Performance Education works with every day.
