Australia Awards Short Courses for Selected Countries

About Australia Awards

The Australia Awards is an establishment that takes the importance of Australian higher education seriously. As a hubspot for some of the world’s leading universities, the Australia Awards sees this as an opportunity to develop not just national students of the country, but international students who wish to pursue their studies in Australia as well. Therefore, the Australia Awards has led several initiatives on the basis of education with the hopes that it could improve other sectors as well. In this instance, noticing the development needs in their partnering countries hailing from Africa, the Australia Awards is providing a chance for their nationals to partake in Australian national to gain research and fresh insight on how to solve their home countries problems. Taking note of Australia’s many research-led universities that has had a reputation for its outstanding expertise in the field of teaching and their abilities to conduct relevant professional training, the Australia Awards believes that its vision and mission can be achieved through the programmes they have initiated.

About Australia Awards Short Courses

The Australia Awards Short Courses 2019/2020 programme is an opportunity that is designed by the Australia Awards to provide selected candidates with training and professional development skills. Throughout this programme, all candidates will be required to take up several short courses that will help enrich their professional capacity and make use of it to contribute back to their respective home countries. Training will involve developing critical skills, knowledge and networks that will be needed to improve the social welfare of the society that they are currently living in. Some of the previous courses that have been provided include: Extractives, Agriculture, Policy, Environment, Health and Technical Vocational Education & Training. However, with each passing year, the courses provided will change time after time, depending on the current social needs. The courses that will be provided for this year will eventually be announced on their official website, which you can visit from the contact information listed at the very bottom of this article.

Program Value

The Australia Awards Short Courses 2019/2020 programme has been offering several generous benefits that will be extremely useful for all for all of their grantees. These awards are granted with the hopes that selected candidates will be able to put them to good use and they will be supported enough to further their studies in Australia, making sure that they do not have to spare a thought about any financial needs during the course of their degree. Recipients of the Australia Awards Short Courses programme will be entitled to a list of awards, such as:

• The once in a lifetime opportunity to pursue Australian education.
• Financial coverage of the grantee’s tuition fees.
• Fully-sponsored airplane tickets to the locations of where their short courses will be conducted and back to their home countries.
• Financial coverage of the candidate’s visa expenses.
• Stipends for living costs.
• Full coverage for their accommodation during the entire period of the course.
• Full coverage for their medical insurance during the entire period of the course.
• If necessary, adjustment support for women and people with disabilities.
• The change to building international networks with fellow Australians and other students coming from all parts of the globe.
• Induction into the short course’s programme’s prestigious alumni network.
• Post-short course professional development.

Eligible Countries

There are a handful of African countries that are allowed to join the Australia Awards Short Courses 2019/2020 programme. Please re-check your nationality. The country that you come from will play a vital role in the application role. Besides checking whether your country is included in the list of eligible countries, and therefore, you are allowed to participate in the program, all candidates of this short course programme must also take note that each different country will have different eligibility criteria as well. So before you fulfill and eligibility criteria, please cross check your nationality here. The African countries that are eligible for the Australia Awards Short Courses 2019/2020 programme are as listed below:

• Botswana
• Cameroon
• Cote d’Ivoire
• Ethiopia*
• Ghana
• Kenya
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Nigeria
• Rwanda*
• Senegal
• Somalia*
• South Africa
• South Sudan*
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

Note: countries that have the star (*) symbol indicates that their courses will be conducted inside the continent of Africa.

Eligibility

Before you apply for the Australia Awards Short Courses 2019/2020 programme, you will need to check whether you are eligible enough for the program or not. As different African countries may have different circumstances and policies applied, there is also a possibility for each country to have its own set of eligibility criteria. To check for your country-specific sectors, you may access through this official link here. Besides that, there are a certain selected list of countries that are allowed to participate in the Australia Awards Short Courses 2019/2020 programme since this short courses programme is mainly targeted towards individuals who originate from Africa and hold valid African nationality. Due to that, all candidates must please make sure that they are from the aforementioned countries in the previous section.

Requirements

If you’re eligible for the Australia Awards Short Courses 2019/2020 programme, you’ll need to fulfill other several requirements as well. Just like the eligibility criteria, these requirements are important as well and should not be missed. Failure to meet all of these requirements might be a risky move. The requirements are as follows:

• Holds a valid African citizenship.
• Has earned a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
• Currently employed in their respective fields.
• Has work experience in their proposed post-graduate field.
• Candidate must be from 25-55 years old by the time of application.
• Displays an ability to implement what they have learnt during the short courses to improve the policies or welfare of their home countries.
• Proven fluency in both written and spoken English.
• Is able to attain an Australian student visa (subclass 500).

How to Apply

Are you now all set to for the Australia Awards Short Courses 2019/2020 programme applications? To start the procedure, you can simply click the “Apply Now” link on the official website, or you may access it through this link here. After clicking the link, you will be redirected to another page here you will be required to fill out and choose certain things, such as Country, Type of Award (choose Australia Awards Short Courses). The purpose of this is to re-check whether you are eligible for the programme or not as there might be a possibility of different countries having extra criteria. After re-checking, you may begin your online application on the website.

The applications for the Australian Awards Short Courses 2019/2020 programme will be examined. All aspects of it, starting from the personal statements, Reintegration Action Plan, and all of the attached documents will be assessed to see whether they are in line with the vision and mission of the programme. Unlike the Australia Awards Short Courses programme, this programme will not entail an offline interview with the committee panel. Instead, candidates will receive a phone call from the committee to verify they their applications and the statements in it. This will include questions revolving around the personal claims on their applications and their current employment status.

Once all of that is done, all chosen candidates will be notified by their training providers. The short courses that grantees will be provided is the main responsibility of their training provider. In short, the specific courses that applicants will undergo throughout the programme will be pre-selected by their supervisors instead. This means that participants of the programme will not be able to nominate the course or institution of their wishes.

Closing Date

Now that you are all set for the Australia Awards Short Courses 2019/2020 programme, it’s time to take note of these important dates. The application period for this programme is from October 1st 2019 until January 17th, 2020. Please be noted that all candidates a must send in their applications by the closing dates – should any candidate submit their applications past the closing date, their applications will not be acknowledged by the committee and they will automatically be dismissed.

In addition, we highly encourage all candidates to submit their applications way before the closing date. Since this is an online-based application procedure, there is bound to be heavy online traffic nearing the end of the application period. With heavy online traffic, there might be a possibility that the website will crash, which will then affect your applications procedure. Therefore, have your application and documents from the earliest moment that you can so that you will have an easier time submitting your applications.

Official Contact

Do you still have questions about the Australia Awards Short Courses 2019/2020 programme? Not to fret! We have all the the important contact information that you require. If you have any further inquiries or concerns, you may ask them through any of these contact information below. Remember to ask all of the questions you need answers too, so that you’ll have a smooth and efficient time applying for this programme. Last but not least, don’t forget to prepare well and do your best. Happy applying, future scholars of the world!

Website: https://www.australiaawardsafrica.org/awards/types-of-awards/
Contact Form: http://www.australiaawardsafrica.org/contact/
Phone Numbers: +27 (0) 12 362 4360 (Pretoria Hub) or +254 (20) 760 86 80 (Nairobi Hub)