Getting the most out of an education fair

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SarawakYES!---Feb-20AS we enter the season of education and career fairs, it’s important for school leavers to make the most of their visits to these events.

Over the next couple of weeks, some of the biggest fairs will take place, such as the Borneo Post International Education Fair (Feb 27-28), Sarawak Career and Training Fair 2016 (March 8-10), and various others coming to a town near you.

If you’ve prepared well and done the background work, your visit to an education fair will be extremely fruitful. So, before you head over to one of these events, make sure you consider the following:
Be focused and purposeful
Knowing what you want is one thing but when you’re at an education fair, it can be rather overwhelming when you’re surrounded by so many options. As soon as you arrive, it’s important to stay focused when looking out for the right institution. Just remember, you need to plan your visit carefully. If you know what course you’re interested in, draw up a short list of universities offering the course, and plan to visit them all and stick with the plan.
List your questions
At the education fair, representatives from each institution will be ready to answer all your queries. So having a list of questions for them would save a considerable amount of time and would enable you to obtain all the information you need. Use your time productively to find out things that a prospectus may not tell you; for example, what the students are like, the atmosphere, cost of living, social life, and so on.

Your list should include questions regarding:

• Entry requirements

• Career prospects

• Course fees

• Availability of industrial training
Have your documents ready
It’s a good idea to bring along relevant documents to the education fair, such as photocopies of your identity card, certificates, exam results and forecast results. Have plenty of copies ready or even bring along the original documents, just in case you need to make extra copies. Some courses may require applicants to present their work or portfolios. This usually applies, among others, to design-related courses like architecture, sculpting, advertising or graphic design. Sometimes music courses would also require you to have samples of the songs that you produced. Having your portfolio ready would be a great advantage.

 

Take notes
Be sure to bring a notebook or something to write notes on. Writing down the pros and cons of each option will give you a better idea of what each institution offers. At the end of the day, you can weigh all the options and finally conclude which is the best option for you.
Don’t be shy
The representatives at the education fair are there to answer your queries and to provide you with any information, so take advantage of their presence and make the most of the event.
This is a weekly column by SarawakYES! – an initiative driven by Faradale Media-M Sdn Bhd and supported by Angkatan Zaman Mansang (Azam) Sarawak – to provide advice and stories on the topics of education and careers to support Sarawakians seeking to achieve their dreams. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.