VCAL / Careers / VET

Careers

Careers and Pathway Planning 2014

Pathway planning has never been more important for each of our boys, especially students in Years 10–12. With the review of the Year 9 program in 2015 we hope that more career services will be open to boys in Year 9 to enable them to begin the process of pathway planning. We have worked on making our boys more responsible for making decisions in the subject selection process and used the Morrisby Report to inform our students and their parents about the talents and abilities of each participant. 2014 saw every student in Year 10 complete this program to give them a good start in choosing a pathway that matches their interests and learning more about themselves in the process. It is a concern for those of us working in this field that the Commonwealth Government continues to cut funding to education. Resources to assist students, such as the ‘myfuture’ website and the Job Guide have been cut back more while costs to the individual have grown. As youth unemployment and ‘under’ employment grows in Australia, the need for young people to be well informed so that they can ensure a smooth transition from school to further education, training or work, has never been greater. Our goal is to continue to develop the partnership between school, students and parents by offering other opportunities for us to work together. Parents occupy a unique and critical place in the transition networks of young people, something that is often unrecognised by parents themselves, but also policy makers, schools and others. Research reflects the importance of parental awareness regarding the formative and supportive role that they play in the transition process. Ultimately, we all want our young people to make decisions that are right for them, which means having all the right information beforehand. PACTS workshops have been developed as an effective way to inform parents about the landscape of career transition so they can discuss these issues with their young people in a knowledgeable way, and support them with finding all the information they need. Parents at De La Salle have really embraced the opportunities to attend these workshops and we plan on continuing them into 2015. De La Salle parents are not only interested and involved in their son’s education, but they are also modelling several key attitudes that young people need to successfully manoeuvre through life and work roles such as being interested and curious, being open to experimentation and innovation, and being able to think ‘outside the box’. We as adults, and more particularly our teenagers, face a rapidly changing world of work. The careers message used to be: find where the growth sectors are and get in; but now it is: the job is not hot if the spirit is not. In other words, follow your heart or follow your passion. Previously, it was expected that people knew exactly what they wanted to do and where their career was going. Nowadays we want young people to be open to change and be able to identify what they want to do, yet also be flexible and adaptable. Mrs Carmel Smart Careers Coordinator

Year 12 VCAL student Sam Deed won the LLEN South Eastern Region Student of the Year Award

VCAL

Happy 10th Birthday VCAL

This year the College celebrated the 10th anniversary of its VCAL program. With only several graduates in its first year in 2005, the program has gone from strength to strength and has gained considerable notoriety amongst other schools as a leader in the field. Since it commenced, 127 students have graduated with a VCAL Certificate from the College. This year the senior VCAL class has been hard at work on a new recreation and seating area for the Tiverton Campus. In the initial stages of the project, the class presented a proposal including a final design and budget to Principal Peter Houlihan for approval. Once they were given the green light they sourced materials, cleared the site and constructed seating and planter boxes for the area which will provide enough seating for a full class. Located between the Year 7 Building and the Brother’s flats on the corner of Stanhope and High Streets, the boys laid Astro Turf on the site in readiness for the wooden seating. After the construction phase, the seating and planter boxes were put in place and the area was ready for use. In Year 11 VCAL this year the students have developed a communications strategy for men’s health with funding through Foundation 49. The class designed and implemented a questionnaire around health issues affecting young men and based on the findings developed a series of fact sheets and posters to promote the issues which will be distributed around inner city schools. This year 20 students completed a VCAL program at the College and 10 graduated with the Senior VCAL Certificate. Some members of the senior class will go on to apprenticeships in building, plumbing and electrics while others will go on to further study at TAFE.

Throughout the year the VCAL students have participated in a range of industry focused events including site visits to Melbourne Water, The Port of Melbourne and Lowe Constructions. As well as their VCAL qualifications and their VET Studies, the boys have also completed a Barista Course White Card Training, First Aid, scaffolding, Safe Driver Program, the Tritactics Program and Ready Set Work Program. It has been another productive and successful year for the VCAL program. As this is my last year as VCAL Coordinator, I would like to thank all the people both inside the College and in the College community for their support and dedication to the program. Thank you to the other members of the Pathways Team, Mrs Camel Smart and Mrs Caroline Fitzpatrick for their friendship and support. I would also like to thank our hard working VCAL teachers, including Mr Charles Thompson, Mrs Catherine Loft, Mr Ian Gibson, Mr Tim Hogan, Mr Warren Walker, Mr Adam Jacobs and Mr Peter Harte who have taught in the program this year. Finally congratulations to the graduating VCAL class and the best of luck for your future career pathway. Ms Kerry Martin VCAL Coordinator

You never know where the path may lead you…

De La Salle College students throughout 2014 have shown a real commitment to incorporating a VET study into their VCE and VCAL programs. This study allows them to experience lots of wonderful applied learning experiences like officiating sports carnivals with neighbouring primary schools, pulling a car engine apart (and hopefully putting it back together again!), playing in a band and working towards a performance assessment, building ‘small houses’ from the bottom up and working for couture designers, as well as creating imaginative 3D media designs. An added incentive is receiving a nationally recognised industry qualification at the completion of their two year VET study. To support the subject selection process ten of our Year 10 students participated in a 10 week pathway program where they attended Holmesglen each Wednesday completing a Building Services Unit. They finished the course with their hands full of their mastered projects, a cheese board in one hand and a table in the other. The boys had a great experience which allowed them to experience life at TAFE as well as confirming (or not!) that they wanted to do a VET study next year. A number of the VET subjects have a compulsory SWL (Structured Work Placement) incorporated into the course. Two of our students, Luke Goy and Liam Robinson, completed this requirement during Term 3 holidays. Luke worked at Mathieu Salem’s Couture Design House in Malvern. He had a great week and they were so impressed with Luke that they didn’t want to let him go, so he is now working there on Saturdays. Liam worked at a busy educational facility and they left messages on my telephone to tell me how impressive he was in the office. Well done. These two boys are examples of the types of things that can happen when you have the courage to try something different. This year we had boys enrolled in Media, Justice, Animal Studies Technical Production, Outdoor Education, Electro Technology, Business, Automotive Studies, Plumbing, Building and Construction, Community Sport and Recreation, Digital Multi Media, Applied Fashion, Music, Engineering and Horticulture. I would like to congratulate these students who have been able to study a course off campus and successfully manage the transport and demands that these courses require of them. I would also like to thank the members of the Pathways Team, Mrs Carmel Smart and Mrs Kerry Martin who have supported the students and me throughout the year. Ms Caroline Fitzpatrick VET Coordinator

VET