careers evening

Last year we had introduced a careers evening for students and parents to be able to come in, listen to presenters, providers and teachers about possible careers so that students have a better picture of the subjects that they require, better choices, and also what is required of them through the achievement standards. It was interesting that the conversations I was having with parents was more around the front end of the curriculum, yes skills and knowledge are important, but so is managing one self, participation, using language, symbols and text. Informing students that they will probably not be sitting in a room by themselves, that they will have to work as part of a team, develop good communication skills, be able to put your ideas forward are important to employers.

It was also good to talk to them about the changes that have happened with digital technologies, and that we are required to do the technology curriculum until year 10. It provides them an idea that we are developing knowledge and skills, rather than just skills.

Sometimes I think these careers evenings are like speed dating, you have such a shorteriod of time to impart so much information, that at one stage I was interacting with four groups, informing them about the subject, what ideals we are looking for, what the different codes means in the upper levels.

It is now such an important part of our job, to help inform students about what possibilities there are out there. Though I did like to use the information from seek and trade me, that there are 3508 it jobs currently, and that there are 108 science jobs.