From classroom to careers - how Macallan College is opening doors for Filipino students in Australia

For most Filipino students, landing a job in Australia has largely involved earning college degrees mostly in nursing, caregiving, or hospitality support roles, although the guarantee of landing a job after graduation is slim.

Macallan College is hoping to change that, by helping Filipino students develop trade skills in high-demand industries, ensuring they'll be able to land stable, well-paying jobs when they graduate.

Solving a new demand

The need for vocational training is directly linked to a spike in demand for skilled trades in post-Covid-19 Australia. Thousands of jobs remain unfulfilled in growing industries, such as F&B, which brought in AU$64 billion (S$53.52 billion) last year.

That's where Macallan College comes in to bridge the gap. The vocational college offers short-duration qualifications in trades like automotive, carpentry and commercial cooking.

While there are classes on the fundamentals, the courses also include practicals where students get hands-on experience that accurately reflect the industry they're in. The goal? To have students confidently prepared to step into the job the day after graduation.

From certification to employment

Beyond academics, the college provides targeted student support that many traditional universities overlook, such as housing assistance, visa guidance, health and wellbeing resources, and cultural integration programmes. Said Debra Phipps, CEO of Macallan College, "we're giving [our students] tools to thrive - a trade skill [and] a support system, and the confidence to use both."

Multiple students have shared their experiences of receiving support from Macallan College faculty. Rain, a student from Cebu who's on her third course shared that she found the staff at Macallan supportive. "You're never alone here," she said.

Bryan, who graduated from Macallan's Automotive programme agreed, saying he "wouldn't have made it without the mentorship [he] got at Macallan." Today, Bryan works full-time restoring retro cars in Australia, which he calls his "dream job".

Providing opportunities across Australia

Macallan College has its headquarters in Queensland, Australia, and has five campuses in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. This has given students opportunities to study in different cities, matching them with regional job demand.

For the Filipino student population, Sydney and Brisbane are favoured cities for their job availability and community networks. The number of Filipino students enrolled at Macallan has nearly doubled in the past five years, with nearly 300 students enrolled in programmes.

Said Phipps of the growing Filipino student population, "education should lead somewhere [and] for our Filipino students, it leads to independence, to contribution, and to a future they can build with their own hands."

This article is brought to you by Macallan College