Attribute

Strengths

A. Knowledgeable and Skilled in their

Disciplines

Good theoretical
knowledge from my
1. - Comprehensive knowledge and skills relating university course and
other health and
to their disciplines
environment related
2. - An interdisciplinary perspective
topics

Weaknesses

Opportunity: Skills and

competencies you would
like to develop on
placement

Threats: what may

block this development

Not enough
experience in the real
world to carry out my
occupational
knowledge

practical experience is
necessary to get a deeper
understanding

Lack of understanding
how to apply theoretical
knowledge one real
world

Some weaknesses with

the written language
due to my non English
background

Better and more

professional writing skills,
especially when it comes to
formal letters

Not enough
opportunities to write
formal letters

3. - Capacity to find, evaluate and use

information
4.

- Ability to apply discipline/professional skills

and knowledge in the workplace

B. Effective Communicators and Team

Members
1.

- Capacity to communicate effectively with

others orally

2.

- Capacity to communicate effectively with

others in writing

3.

- Capacity to communicate effectively with

others using ICTs, multimedia, visual, and
other forms appropriate to their disciplines

4.

- Capacity to interact and collaborate with

others effectively, including in teams, in the
workplace, and in culturally or linguistically
diverse contexts

Very open to speak to

other people and a
good understanding on
how to present data
and information with
multimedia devices

C. Innovative and Creative with Critical

Judgement
1.

- Ability to use knowledge and skills to devise

solutions to unfamiliar problems

2.

- Ability to analyse and critically evaluate

arguments and evidence appropriate to their
disciplines (e.g. collect, analyse and interpret
data and information, generate and test
hypotheses, synthesise and organise
information)

3.

- Knowledge of research methodologies in

their disciplines and capacity to interpret
findings

4.

- Ability to generate ideas/products/

methods/approaches/perspectives as
appropriate to the discipline

D. Socially Responsible and Engaged in their

Communities
1.

- Ethical awareness (professional and

personal) and academic integrity

2.

- Capacity to apply disciplinary knowledge to

solving real-life problems in relevant
communities

3.

- Understanding of social and civic

responsibilities, human rights and
sustainability

4.

- Understanding the value of further learning

and professional development

E. Competent in Culturally Diverse and

International Environments
1.

- Respect, awareness, knowledge and skills to

interact effectively in culturally or
linguistically diverse contexts

2.

- A global and international perspective on

their disciplines

Good thinking around

corners and apply
knowledge from
different fields to get a
good result and
understand given data
easily

No experience in
developing strategies
in a formal way, like
how to make it within
a legal content

Bringing the ideas in a

formal format and finding
new ways in understanding
and interpret data

Problems in understand
and apply legislative
formats and a lack of
knowledge to do so

European background
and travelled the
world, therefor
contact with different
ethics, bilingual.

Coming in contact with

Australians who do not
respect me due to my
immigration
background

To apply people skills and

disciplinary social skills in
real life situation

Not to understand
people with a very
strong accent

European background
and travelled the
world, therefor
contact with different
ethics, bilingual. Good
understanding of global
ecological and
economical
relationships

Only know really in

detail the Australian
and German
environmental
professional discipline

Gaining a bit of knowledge

from the environmental
perspective of major
immigrant groups in
australia

Finding cultural barriers

that I am not able to
cross to describe the
Australian
environmental
protection regulations

Reflection

Over the last 2 years I enjoyed a vibrant and challenging education at Griffith University to achieve skills that are necessary
to achieve a broad knowledge and skills that will enable me to perform well in a working environment as an Environmental Health
Officer (EHO). I had an idea of what an EHO is doing and that it will be an interesting occupation. But through the course I have
learned that there are so many pathways in which my personal carrier can go that it is sometimes confusing and hard to decide
which path I should choose.
I think that we got a lot of tools given at hand from the university to deal in a real world working environment. But I pointed
out that it is only theoretical knowledge base, and I am threaten that I am not able to apply these skills in the real world. This is why
I am looking forward to a practical experience during my internship time and observe how EHOs deal with problems on and how the
procedures are to carry out this knowledge on a daily base.
I am very pleased that we have been forced to write professional and academic papers all through our study time. That
enhanced my ability to communicate in professional written English a lot, but there is still a lot to improve in my opinion. I have a
strong vocabulary foundation and a relative good understanding of the grammar. But to write official letter with all the new
terminology is a total new challenge for me. That is why I am pleased that we have to write an official letter at university and have to
use terminology from legislations and acts to do so. To strengthen this skill, I hope I will have the opportunity to work in the
legislation field or in a section where I have the opportunity to see first hand how to work on a new policy or information paper
during my internship. Even that this it is my biggest weakness, it is actually the field where I want to work later.
At the moment I find it difficult to follow a formative way to express my findings when somebody breaches a regulation or to
write an official letter to a supervisor/manager. But we just started with this kind of work at the university at the moment (fifth
semester) and like with all the other task earlier during my degree, like writing reports and assignments, I am confident that I will
achieve good skills in generating these kinds of letters.I see the internship as one of the most important learning opportunities
during my degree. Because there I have to apply all the gained knowledge and combine it in a real world situation. Also I hope to
deal often with the way of formative writing.

Because of my European background where we life with many nationalities in a relative small area and because of my
travels to different parts of the world, I am social and cultural aware. I really enjoy to deal with people from different cultural
backgrounds, because I think it will widens ones own horizon and makes us see the world and some of it problems from a different
perspective. I also think my immigration background will benefit me in a lot of ways in carrying out the role as an EHO in Australia.
Many people nowadays in Australia have a recent immigration background, especially in the Gold Coast and Brisbane region and in
hospitality. Therefor I can be not only empathic, but I can even relate to it. How it feels to be in another country, with other laws and
a different mindset in the population. And I think this personal experience gives me the sensitivity in carrying out my role as an EHO
in a metropolitan area in Australia.

Learning Goals
1. Reproduce formal letter to customers and superior officers/managers
2. Adapt theoretical knowledge in a fast pacing working environment with a wide range of duties
3. Collaborate with other EHOs and people from other departments to obtain knowledge about their roles and how they can
help me later to carry out my role as an EHO (networking)
4. Adapt skills, knowledge and a practical understanding to develop guidelines and/or legislative letters