I started my career as a teacher in West Australian high schools. I believe that knowing what you want to do has power that can drive a successful life.
I have now been researching and collating information for career professionals in In Focus Careers News for the past eight years. Together we are building our capacity to help students to find their power and create satisfying lives.
If you would like to know about careers opportunities in Western Australia contact me at Bev.J@infocus-careers.com.au or M: 0434056412
The traditional way from school to uni is via ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) which is based on results achieved across ATAR subjects in years 11 and 12.
ATAR is the best pathway to uni if you want to go into competitive degrees like medicine, law, engineering or specialist science programs.
Case Study of One
If you study any ATAR subject, you will have an advantage if you study that subject at university. I studied economics at school, loved it, so chose to study it at university. From day one, I was off to a great start.
Essential V Desirable ATAR Subjects
Some courses have essential ATAR prerequisites, like Math Methods, Physics, and/or Chemistry. You can check out the prerequisites required for 2028 in the University Admissions Guide.
Scholarships for ATAR Students
Most unis provide academic scholarships for students who do well in their ATAR scores. Academic superstars can be successful in their applications for several scholarships.
Alternative Pathways
ECU’s UniPrep, Curtin’s UniReady, Murdoch’s On Track and Notre Dame’s UniPath are non-ATAR entry pathway to uni that many schools offer.
They all build academic skills, such as time management, research, academic reading and writing and maths. They can also focus on discipline-specific knowledge and on skills such as confidence and critical thinking.
ECU Uni Prep
Do Alternative Pathways Work?
The Australian Centre for Student Equity and Successanalysed enabling programs delivered by 94 high schools around Australia. This included surveys of 2,000 students enrolled between 2021 and 2023:
We found 79% of the group completed the program, and 660 students progressed to uni in 2022–2024.
Of those who went onto university study, 75% continued into second year. This compares to 79% for ATAR entrants.
This post contains detailed information about pathways into electrical trades in Western Australia.
Being offered an electrical apprenticeship is getting as hard as getting into medicine. At the end of 2025 hundreds of West Australian high school students missed out on electrical pre apprenticeships.
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know
It seems that the best way to get an apprenticeship as an electrician is to have a family member who is willing to employ you.
Shortage of Trainers
The resource industry is scooping up qualified electricians and paying them a bucket load to go onto the mines. It is difficult to attract qualified electricians from industry to deliver training to the 6000 apprentice electricians in WA.
Matt Shaw from Clean Energy Skills Recommendations
Matt Shaw spoke at the Career Development Conference at Curtin late last year. He told us that there is doing to be a 4% increase in demand for electricians every year to 2050.
He suggested that teachers go to the Clean Energy site for case studies and information about future careers.
From Robert Palmer at South Metro TAFE
Rob Palmer is a senior career advisor at South Metro TAFE. I contacted him for advice on how to get into a trade as an electrician from school.
Semester 2 applications via TAFE Admissions typically open in late April/early May.
The pre-apprenticeship course is also offered at Armadale as a VETDSS course for school students completing Year 11 and 12.
(These new opportunities were snapped up as soon as they became available. It may be easier to get a place in Semester 2. Bev)
Rob is an advocate for people enrolling in a skills set in a related trade first. He said that working as a trades assistant or builders’ labourer for a while would make applicants more attractive to potential employers.
The Defence Industries Pathways Program is a 12-month paid traineeship which gives trainees exposure to various sectors of the defence industry (e.g. manufacturing and engineering, computing and logistics) and includes 3 X 12-week work placements with defence industry employers.
It does not provide a direct entry into the electrical trade. However, the opportunity for DIPP participants to complete work-placements and demonstrate their work-ethic and aptitude can put them in a good position when Defence Industry employers advertise electrical apprenticeships.
Martin Turnbull at the Rockingham Jobs and Skills Centre Defence Industry Team (Martin.Turnbull@smtafe.wa.edu.au) is a good contact for the DIPP.
The College of Electrical Training is now the biggest trainer of apprentice electricians in WA. They have a maths quiz as part of the application, and the CET course and will also be highly competitive.
Apprenticeship Support Recommends
Apprenticeship Supporthas joined the challenge to find pathways into electrical trades by recommending that students start with one of these courses:
I have requested information from ECU about courses that lead to electrical careers. These might be easier to get into than apprenticeships.
I will publish that information in the In Focus Careers Newsletter.
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If you need to know about emerging career opportunities in WA, you need In Focus Careers News. At $35 per issue, your organisation will have all the West Australian career information it needs to share with your school community.
In 2026 – Streaming Services like Netflix will be required to make Australian programs so there will be demand for more Australian film and television creators. Details HERE.
In 2026 – Perth Film Studioswill open in Malaga and there will be demand for creative people to use the facilities.
..a world-renowned screen industry showcasing exceptional creative content and stories to the world.
The Strategy includes a workforce development plan that allocates $11.2 million over four years. There will be an additional $2 million over two years for a pilot Digital Games and Interactive Fund, which will be delivered through Screenwest.
Current University Courses
Western Australia already offers opportunities to those who want to study for careers in creative industries.
VET Courses Provide Skills and Industry Connections
If you are willing to truly engage with the courses, do a VET course. You will quickly develop skills and get contacts who will be your passport into the industry.
Students who know how to create animation and digital games or how to maximise social media will have skills that can be used across the creative industries.
If you want to work in the screen industry start now.
Sketch out a story or game idea
Get help from friends
Use the camera on your phone to create a production.
Look for competitions or take your show reel to lecturers at one of the teaching organisations and ask for help.
Good luck with your screen industry career.
Subscribe to In Focus Careers News
If you need to know about emerging career opportunities in WA, you need In Focus Careers News. At $35 per issue, your organisation will have all the West Australian career information it needs to provide expert guidance to students.
Tertiary educators are facing barriers when they try to meet the Australian Universities Accordreforms to create better credit recognition and seamless pathways from VET to uni. Establishing a collaboration framework that facilitates easy transition from VET into degrees needs to be built on an agreed regime in order to succeed.
A critical challenge to harmonisation is that tertiary providers’ data systems are not aligned, limiting collaboration, creating duplication, and making student mobility difficult.
Australia has had agreed technical standards, that include agreement on semantics. Technical stuff is the easiest standard to negotiate. Security standards will be a critical issue.
Governance
Tertiary education providers need to agree on who is responsible for what and to what standard. These decisions can be value laden and difficult to negotiate.
Legal Framework
Establishing an agreed legal framework will be tricky as VET is a State government responsibility while universities are Commonwealth. Issues about international students, copyright and privacy will need to be agreed. It is easiest to all adopt Commonwealth legal frameworks.
Business Rules
We also need agreed Business Rules. How things are managed to preserve the reputation of collaborating organisations need to be agreed. This involves egos and personal preferences and they are the most difficult issues to negotiate.
Financial Rules
If there is a standard framework then recognizing VET skills by unis will be low cost. VET providers will need to establish systems to ensure that unis don’t bare the costs involved in recognizing VET qualifications.
Summary
The Australian Government developed its first Strategy for Joined Up Government in 2003. It is a great template that could be used by those trying to develop seamless pathways. Without an agreement, transition from VET to uni will continue to be ad hoc and wasteful.
I was one of a small group of visitors invited to an early inspection of the new ECU City Campus.
It was a tour of a building site. We had to wear PPE. There is plastic protecting the carpet and cardboard taped up to protect some of the walls in high traffic areas. Workers were everywhere and tradies’ boomboxes blared from each floor.
Overall impression
So much thought has gone into this building. It is actually two buildings, joined by gangways in middle floors and the two buildings become one at the top. It reminded me of Boola Bardip. Lots of open space and connectivity. It seems to soar up and it feels spacious.
What’s missing:
Coffee Shops: It may seem trivial, but there are no coffee shops in the building. Students wanting coffee will be forced to go out of the building to interact with people in the city.
No big theatre: There is no big theatre. The Heath Ledge Theatre is only a few hundred metres away and it is envisaged that students will graduate from the smaller ECU studios into the big public theatres.
No Parking: There is no parking at the campus. Public transport is the obvious way to get there. You come out of the Perth City Bus Port just metres from the front door. The Perth train station is across Yagan Square, a couple of hundred metres away.
What’s there:
Bespoke Design The building has been designed for teaching. The theatres are designed so that lighting students or sound students or creative students are the clients, rather than an audience. Expert lecturers and students from ECU and Boorloo custodians were involved throughout the design process. The final colours inside are going to reflect the colours of West Australian wildflowers.
Dance Studio Floor The floors in the four dance studios are the best they could find from anywhere in the world. They were designed in England as were the sound panels on the ceiling of the double height rooms.
Sound. Light. Action The best architects have consulted with the best creative practitioners to ensure the sound, lighting, theatrical teaching opportunities are the best in the world.
Built on springs The building is vulnerable to vibration because it is built over the train line and bus station. It has been engineered to sit on a spring foundation like that used in earthquake zones. This will be a particular advantage for the high tech equipment in the building.
Top floor services There is no room under the building for services, so they have been located in the top floors. This seems weird, but if they had been located on lower floors they would have disrupted the flow from one section to the next, which is a feature of the building.
Design
It feels like Boola Bardip. There are lots of open spaces and many hubs where you can sit and study. There are two main buildings connected with walkways on the lower floors and joined together at the top.
Orientation: The creatives face Northbridge. Business, law and cyber security are on the city side.
The entrance: The foyer off Yagan Square welcomes you with beautiful wooden bleacher like seating for public and students. An escalator to rival that in Boola Bardip draws you up into the building. The entrance ceiling is 40 metres high (don’t hold me to that) and to your left is an LED wall where students’ work will be showcased.
Ground floor gallery. There is an art gallery on the ground floor where student art will be displayed. This is a proper gallery, open to the public. You can see into it from Yagan Square.
Piano Museum In homage to the role pianos have played in early white settlement of Western Australia, there will be a museum of old pianos on the ground floor.
Theatres: There are three theatres, all with outstanding sound proofing. The recital hall impressed me most with its beautiful wooden sound proofed and acoustically perfect walls and crafted wooden ceiling. The theatres are small with the layout focusing on teaching. The playhouse theatre has tiered seating, which will be perfect for productions for a small audience.
Learning Spaces
The library area is still a work in progress, so it was difficult to understand what it will look like. There are many open study zones throughout the building. The traditional lecture rooms are high tech, as would be expected in a future looking learning space.
Logistics
The building is handed over to ECU on 19 December and staff will move in over the Christmas break.
WAAPA courses, Business and Law, Science including some IT, and Arts and Humanities will be based at the City Campus.
Education will move from Mt Lawley to the Joondalup campus.
There will be 1000 staff working from there and the building has the capacity to support 9000 students.
The campus will commence operations at the start of the 2026 academic year.
There are no WAAPA Summer School classes.
Thanks to those who invited me. It is going to be amazing!!
Stephen Spielberg made his first feature move at 16, yet even he advised to listen for a whisper rather than wait for your dream to shout to you. You would expect the creator of the BFG, Indiana Jonesand Jurassic Parkto know he wanted to be a movie maker.
Perhaps even Speilberg had doubts about his career choice, or wondered if there was something better for him.
Charles Kingley said:
It is tricky to find a job you are enthusiastic about. Those jobs don’t shout out to you.
As career professionals it is our role to help people to:
Become Aware of opportunities for enthusiasm
Explore career pathways to happiness
Help them to engage in work they find interesting
Repeat 1 – 3 until they find something to become enthusiastic about.
Using the Model
When working with people, ask them where they want to start on this career model:
Are they looking for something totally new?
Do they know what they want, but not know how to get there?
Are they interested in their work but want to refine their target for the future?
Download this copy of the Career Influence Model to use with your clients
If you would like a job during the holidays but have never applied for a job, there is help available to get you on the right track and it’s free from the Jobs and Skills Centres, which are located throughout the State.
Go to a Jobs and Skills Centre for job application skills.
Text books for schools
Text book sellers have their peak time during the summer holidays as schools and students get their text books for the next year.
If you are interested in working with friends and making some money over summer, this could be a good option for you.
Every year Campion Education hires up to 1700 casual staff across Australia for our busy back-to-school period.There are stores in Canning Vale and Malaga
Casual jobs at Campion are typically from late October / November to February. The roles are in either customer support, warehouse & operations, or retail stores.
Once you register, we will let you know in August when applications open, so you can apply ahead of the crowd.
CBH Summer Jobs
Each year usually in about October, Western Australian (WA) grain growers start harvesting their grain such as canola, wheat, barley and oats.
It only pays $33/hour but there is opportunity for overtime and many uni students save enough to pay for their academic year by working for CBH.
There are three main jobs on a CBH receival site:
Samplers are responsible for ensuring the quality of grain by sampling a truck load of grain and performing an unbiased and accurate assessment of the load.
A Weighbridge Officer is responsible for controlling the site weighbridges, recording grower deliveries and ensuring the correct and accurate weighing of the trucks.
RPOs are responsible for ensuring that the grain flows smoothly from the trucks to the storage areas.
You don’t require any experience as CBH provides all of the necessary training!
Swimming Instructor – Education Department
If you’re a friendly, outgoing person who loves the water, help us run the Education Department’s popular swimming programs across the state.
Leaving school is one of the biggest changes you will ever face. Change is scary and exciting.
When you leave school you can go to uni or TAFE, or you can explore your world by taking a Gap Year.
This post identifies Gap Year opportunities in:
Agriculture
Defence
Volunteering overseas
Studying overseas
Working in the outback.
AgCareerStart / Agriculture Gap Year Program
If you’re 17-25, this unique gap-year program provides you with a paid job, training and development, not to mention the opportunity to build your networks within the agriculture industry.
You can indicate which farm type you’d prefer and where in Australia you would ideally like to go. Find details HERE.
Summer School Harvest Jobs with CBH
Summer jobs with CBH are a tradition in the West Australian wheatbelt. Students work hard through the heat and dust to earn good money to travel, buy a car or fund their study.
The pay is only $33/hour but there is a load of overtime, there is training, free accommodation and a range of roles. Check details HERE.
Vacation Swimming Instructor Jobs
If you are 17 you can be a qualified swimming instructor. Check the qualifications you need HERE.
The horticulture industry relies on people to pick their fruit and veggies. If you take on this work you will probably meet backpackers who are traveling around Australia.
You can apply for a Defence Force Gap Year in the Airforce, Navy and Army.
There is a range of different job opportunities that you can apply for.
To be eligible to apply, you’ll need to be an Australian citizen aged between 18 and 24 on COMPLETION of military training. You’ll also need to have completed Year 12 (subject passes required vary by job) and have passed in Year 10 English and maths.
Applications for all roles are now open – and will close as positions are filled. Learn more HERE.
Army Reserves – part time defence jobs
If you want to do something different on a part time basis, you can apply to join the navy, army or air force reserves. There is a range of jobs you can do.
Because of skills shortages, resorts and roadhouses are importing workers from the Pacific Islands… and everywhere else!
Look for these jobs on sites like Seekor phone/email the local tourist bureau and ask where to find a job in the area.
If you are 18 you can earn more money serving alcohol than cleaning or serving in a cafe. You will need your Responsible Service of Alcohol certificateto be able to work serving alcohol.
Work on a Station
Can’t ride a motor bike or muster cattle? Maybe you can make scones or serve coffee.
Ellenbrae Station Scones
Many stations supplement their incomes through tourism.
If you can clean and make a bed, you can probably find a job supporting the station tourism industry. Look for jobs on sites like Seek.
VolunteerOpportunitiesfor school leavers
Cahoots provides camps and programs for young people with disabilities. They are looking for Year 12 school leaver volunteers who are willing to support young people to engage with recreational activities.
With projects based on the edge of the world’s best safari and close to Mount Kilimanjaro, it’s no wonder that Tanzania is one of our most popular destinations.
In Tanzania, you’ll help support Maasai communities. Consider the following options:
If you would like to study overseas, you can check out your options at hotcoursesabroad.
Crimson is a company which links Australians to university courses in the UK and US. You can get the latest information HERE.
Need Experience? Volunteer at Home
Once you leave school it is tricky getting work experience as employers aren’t insured to cover unpaid volunteers.
In Western Australia you can apply for volunteer work through Volunteering WA. People put in requests for volunteers to them and they place people and cover them through the Volunteering WA insurance.
The Volunteering WA people said that when you first start with them they are careful of the sort of work they let you do until you have proven yourself.
Youth Central provides trusted government advice on gap year opportunities
Youth Central isn’t trying to sell you anything. They don’t want anything from you. They are just trying to help.
Check out Youth Central. It’s a Victorian Government site that has clear, unbiased tips on taking a gap year.
Essential V Desirable ATAR Subjects
Matt Shaw spoke at the Career Development Conference at Curtin late last year. He told us that there is doing to be a 4% increase in demand for electricians every year to 2050. 
The 10 year plan aims to create:
