Winter school brings the world to UTS

Students from locations as diverse as Hawaii and the Netherlands, Austria and Mexico, have for the first time joined Sydney-based undergraduates in the UTS Business School's new-style Winter Program.

The inaugural Management Skills Winter Program this year took the usual winter school concept a step further by enrolling not just overseas students from UTS Business School's partner universities worldwide but also local and international Business School participants.

The 2014 Winter Program received more than 150 expressions of interest, with 22 students selected for the three-week "intensive" program run during the recent semester break.

"The new Management Skills Program has been an opportunity for local students and international students to come together to learn, to develop their skills and to advance their business knowledge," says the Deputy Dean, Professor Tracy Taylor, who was personally involved in teaching the program, along with Associate Professor Kylie Redfern.

"The students are taking away a real range of skills – in cultural communication, networking, relationship building, as well as developing their business knowledge and experience," Prof Taylor says.

"It's given them the opportunity to go out and see business leaders in action, and to have conversations with some of the most exciting businesses across Sydney."

The Winter Program included classroom work, group learning, company visits, industry speakers and networking sessions – as well as opportunities for the visitors to explore Sydney.

The students heard from senior managers from Tourism Australia, the Sydney Swans Australian Football League (AFL) Club and the Sydney Roosters National Rugby League (NRL) Club – with these site visits being one of the highlights of the program.

They also heard from the Australia-China Business Council about the growing importance of trade and business ties between the two countries.

At an afternoon networking event students met with guests from some of UTS Business School's key industry partners.

Coralie Mitchell, International Activities Co-ordinator with the Business School, says the Winter Program allows visiting students to have an overseas student experience over a short period time at a reasonable cost.

"For some, this can be a toe in the water before undertaking longer-term study here in Australia, perhaps at the postgraduate level," she says.

Students came from North America, South America, Europe and Asia for the inaugural program.

Anora Fairchild, who hails from Mongolia but is studying at UTS Business School, says access to the School's top teachers and guest speakers such as Tamzin Taylor from Google Australia and New Zealand was "such an opportunity".

Alfonso Hernandez, visiting from the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, says the students formed strong bonds, rooming together in accommodation adjacent to the Business School campus, which is on the doorstep of the business district and entertainment precincts.

"We discovered the world in our apartment in just three weeks, with everybody cooking a meal – Mexican food, Dutch food, Hawaiian food," he says.

"I'm going to recommend this program because it's a very good opportunity to learn a lot about management skills, to learn from people from other cultures, and to learn a lot about this amazing country, Australia."

UTS Business School plans to launch the 2015 Winter Program at the annual conference of the European Association for International Education (EAIE) in Prague in September.