Above: Panel members Agnel D’souza, Shane Howells and David Fitzpatrick spoke to students about how they achieved success.
By Nicole Williams
MORE than 200 Year 10 students scored employment and career advice with their lunch at ‘Lunch with the Winners’ on Tuesday.
The event, held by South East Melbourne Manufacturing Alliance at Sandown Racecourse, included a panel of three young local success stories and guest speaker, futurist Marcus Barber.
Mr Barber urged the students to consider their employment path and whether it would still be need in the future.
“You have to be careful about the employment path you choose – that job might not be around in five years,” he said.
So he also encouraged the students to consider jobs that will be in demand in the future like robotics, remote health and holographics.
Panel member Agnel D’souza moved from India to further his career in engineering with A.W. Bell, and David Fitzpatrick bypassed tertiary study in his home country of America to study mechanical engineering in Australia and is now leading a team at Uneek Bending in Dandenong.
Avionic technician Shane Howells was pronounced deaf at two years of age but insists he has not done anything extraordinary.
“People think I have achieved something by overcoming a hurdle but for me, it hasn’t affected my decisions at all,” he said.
After dabbling in automotive mechanics, he now leads a team at Linak working in avionics.
The panel member encouraged the students to gain skills and build confidence because getting a job what not all about what you know.
They all agreed that employability was about positive and a can-do attitude over technical ability.
