Business and Enterprise

ANTHEA BENNETT

Head of

Business and Enterprise Education

2014 has again proved to be another busy and rewarding year for students and teachers in the Business and Enterprise Education Department. The popularity of our programs and courses continues to flourish and reflects the interest that many of our students have in pursuing a business pathway.

This year has seen our first intake of Senior students complete their studies, awarding them the Diploma of Business qualification. Sixteen Year 12 students completed this qualification that has been delivered by an external provider, Careers Australia (formerly Kings Unitech). This qualification has offered students the opportunity to further extend their business knowledge, increase their employability skills and has also transitioned them to the more independent nature of tertiary study. The Business Department views this partnership with Careers Australia as an excellent opportunity for students that are wishing to pursue a career in business.

The Business Department has continued its association with local universities in 2014. Thirteen of our Year 12 students successfully completed the GriffithBUSINESS program, which involved students participating in assessment at Griffith University in the areas of Business Management; Commerce; and Tourism, Hotel, Event and Sport Management. The students that successfully completed the program are now guaranteed direct entry into a Griffith University Business course in 2015. Congratulations also go to Blake Sinclair, who not only gained direct entry, but was awarded a scholarship for his efforts in the program.

Our Year 9 Business and Enterprise elective continues to grow in popularity, with three classes being run this year. Students in these classes are learning important financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills. The program aims to offer experiential learning opportunities, such as selling a product to the school community, and is focused in providing students with real world business experiences. Our Year 10 electives are offering greater academic rigour as many students have now studied business in Year 9 and they bring a stronger knowledge and skill base to their Year 10 electives.

In the Business Department we are committed to offering students additional opportunities to extend their business skills. Our Business Leadership Passport Program continues to be extremely popular. Students were fortunate to hear from a range of experienced business leaders and also had the opportunity to participate in work experience, enterprise activities and workshops; all designed to enhance their business leadership skills. Year 11 students eagerly participated in the Australian Business Week (ABW) program where they take over the running of a hypothetical sporting goods company. ABW is a unique learning opportunity for students, unlike any other program or classroom activity offered. Students are challenged in a business context and develop crucial skills in relation to time management, leadership and initiative.

For the fifth consecutive year Business and Enterprise staff accompanied Years 10-12 business students on a two-week study tour to the USA. Students visited companies such as Apple Inc., The Mirage Hotel and Davis Polk and Wardwell, an international law firm. This was a unique learning opportunity for students and staff involved.

In an ongoing effort to achieve best practice, staff in the Business and Enterprise Department have sought to continue to refine their teaching practice by embracing the opportunity to visit their colleagues’ lessons. This has provided mutual benefit for both the observer and teacher, with opportunity for feedback and reflection. This has proved to be a worthwhile reflective practice, promoting collaboration and continual growth and improvement in our teaching and thus student learning.

The Business Department will strive to continue to offer its myriad of business opportunities and pathways for students in 2015 and beyond.

BEN HIRST

Head of Design Technology

Whether it is an Architectural Design magazine or an Industrial Design publication or even a glossy House and Garden magazine, the images throughout these publications are always immaculately presented and enjoyable to view. Quality image production of this calibre was generally only attainable to those in the publication industry. Schools always had to use what they could to try and emulate these images to the best of their ability. The Senior Graphics and Technology Studies students at TSS were no different, and although they have been using industry standard programs like Autodesk Inventor for furniture and equipment or Revit Architectural for house and commercial buildings, they never were able to get the extraordinary finish quality. This year the students have been able to take their images to the level of the high street publication with the use of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Keyshot, a brilliant rendering program that allows the user to finish off their graphical designs with fabulous true to life reflections, shadows and colours. Even the students using the programs cannot believe the quality of work they are producing. This sentiment has also been echoed by other Graphics teachers at the recent Year 12 Graphics Verification Panel meeting about the quality of the TSS students’ presentations. Technology Studies has also seen its fair share of brilliant new technologies in use. The first to experiment with our new ‘MakerBot Replicator 2’ 3D printer were the Year 12 Technology Studies students. Once they had produced their Autodesk Inventor design drawings of their project there were able to print out the exact scaled design on the 3D printer. All students were able to see a miniature replica of what they were about to create in the workshop. This gave the students the opportunity to make some final adjustments before going into full production. Second group to try out the 3D printer was the Year 11 Technology students, who were assigned the task of analysing and redesigning a garden-tool handle. Once the designs were drawn, they were 3D printed to full scale, where students