Canadian teachers in the making

Back (L-R): Richard Richter, Hollie Jacobs, Justin Eaves, Front (L-R): Bart Medon and Meaghan Greer

Seeing a kangaroo is high on the list of priorities for nine Canadian university students who arrived in Hervey Bay recently to study at USQ Fraser Coast.

Along with another 80 students, the group is enrolled in the USQ Graduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching.

The students started the program with a week-long residential school at the USQ Fraser Coast during the first week of the school holidays.

The program enables participants who already have a university degree to become teachers.

Co-ordinator of the program and USQ Fraser Coast education lecturer Trevor Black said the graduate diploma had been developed in response to the continuing demand for graduates from other disciplines to become professional educators.

The Canadians said they would receive certification to teach back home in Ontario. The first group of Canadian students to do the graduate diploma at USQ Fraser Coast have just completed their year here and are due to head back to Canada soon. 

Travelling to the far end of the earth hasn't been too much of a culture shock for the new arrivals from Canada.

They said the Fraser Coast and the university campus were not very different from Canada and the university they had attended in Ontario.

Bart Medon, 24, said it was a bit difficult getting used to travelling on the left-hand side of the road though.

Fellow Canadian Meaghan Greer, 23, said she though the classes here were more relaxed.

The group has heard that kangaroos feed in Hervey Bay's Polson Cemetery on dusk so hope to make a trip to Point Vernon to see them.

Meanwhile, fellow student Richard Richter, of Maryborough, is doing the graduate diploma after a taste of teaching in Japan recently.

Richard, who is a former USQ staff member, said he enjoyed tutoring and wanted to make teaching a career.

So after a stint teaching English in Japan, Richard enrolled in the program at USQ.

Media contact: Katrina Corcoran, USQ Media, +61 7 4120 6167