By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
ROBOTICS, plastering, tiling and cake decorating were among the activities Keysborough College students got to try at their careers expo.
Almost 1000 year nine to year 12 students participated in the expo on Thursday 21 May.
Banksia campus principal Patrick Boyd said career education is not taken lightly at the college.
“Sometime it’s not a direct route to their final career and sometimes students will do a TAFE course before moving on,” Mr Boyd said.
In its fifth year the expo showed about 40 exhibitions from universities and TAFEs.
“Career expos let the students talk to the actual people who are involved in the courses who can give them an excellent idea of what’s in the course and the sort of ATAR score needed,” he said.
Keysborough College educates its students on possible career pathways from year seven onwards and Mr Boyd said he thinks many students already have a good idea of where they want to go.
“We put them through an extensive pathways program studying the world of work and year seven and eight students get taken through quite a rigorous online process called Campus Interaction which guides them through intense questioning which narrows down what they’re interested in,” he said.
In term three year 10 students are counselled about their VCE subject choices to ensure their career goals are matched with their subject selection.
“We have a program from year seven through to year 12 where each student annually reviews their pathways program and it works really well and generates interest for the students,” Mr Boyd said.
“When they know what marks they need they have a goal and work towards it which gives them a very good reason to work hard.”
Mr Boyd said he thought students’ favourite part of the day was speaking to experts about courses and trades.
“The day lets them get in contact with people they otherwise wouldn’t get to talk to and gives them an idea of the courses out there and what job prospects come from different courses because just as quickly as the old jobs die there are so many new jobs popping up,” he said.
The annual careers expo will be held at the Acacia campus next year.
