Student Services

PIEC has a team of dedicated education counsellors who guide students in choosing courses that would help them achieve their future goals. We have partnered with many vocational colleges and Universities (through associations) to give you a variety of courses to choose from. we follow a four step process to help our students which include:

It all starts with you. The first counselling session involves understanding your unique situation based on your education history, your aspirations and your skill set. Some obvious considerations to make are your interests, your mode of study-online/ in-class/hybrid, the city you want to live in, costs and scholarships that may be available to off-set the cost of education etc. Some of the questions that we ask to make that assessment include:

• 1. The match between your desired qualification & your professional goals
• 2. Are you considering Australia for migration and in that case, does your course choice enable you to be on the skilled immigration list?
• 3. What visa category do you qualify for?
• 4. Does your level of English meet the requirements of the course or university?
• 5. What is your current visa status?

Once your personal and professional goals are identified, the next step would be discussing with you the universities and institutes that offer those career pathways and evaluating which ones you make the cut for based on the entry requirements. The expected outcomes would be:

• 1. Identifying whether you should work towards a degree or a vocational course in the city you would want to live in
• 2. Which institutions are best suited for you: - public or private university or college or a pre-university English school
• 3. How many hours you can and would work and what class schedules work for you: evening/morning or weekends etc and your mode of study-online/ in-class/hybrid
• 4. Discussing payment options for the course based on your financial considerations and the scholarships that may be available

The genuine temporary entrant requirement (GTE) is an integrity measure to ensure that the Student Visa Programme is used as intended and not used by international students as a way of maintaining de facto permanent residency in Australia. To address the GTE Criteria is a very crucial to maintaining your Australian student visa. Therefore, a trained counsellor who knows the pitfalls can guide you towards making the right decision for your career and life in Australia. Some of the key recommendations we make to students applying for further student visa/extension are:

• • Ensure that you are meeting your school’s attendance criteria at all times
• • Make sure you are focussing on the course and getting acceptable grades every semester: if you repeatedly abandon courses you are enrolled in, DIBP has good reason to believe that you are doing so in stay in Australia, rather than for the genuine purpose of academics
• • Be very mindful of your course choice when switching courses. Don’t switch to a course because it’s cheaper or your friends are studying it. Study what you are genuinely interested in and what builds on your current qualification. You can be under scrutiny if DIBP feels the course choices you are making may not be relevant to your past course or proposed future employment
• • Do not work for more hours than your student visa allows you.

Once you are clear on your choices and have decided to take the next step towards enrolment, the counsellor would guide you through all the paperwork needed and manage every step of the enrollment process. This includes:

• • Guiding you on all the paperwork needed for visa and application process including certified copies of academic transcripts, diplomas/certificates, etc
• • Completing all applications forms and working with you on filling up the requisite paperwork
• • Liaising with the selected institution through the course of the application process on your behalf and getting your letter of offer and Confirmation of Enrollment from them
• • Filing for your new student visa and/or extension.