The need to support students who are experiencing trauma or stress is at least one factor wearing teachers out.
The need to ensure the safety of students can isolate schools and prevent them accessing specialist services for students that free up teachers to teach.
Formal arrangements, with stakeholders who meet government safety requirements, can provide expert advice and free up teachers for the already complex task of educating.
I found these services that can engage with schools to deliver services in addition to teaching
Sending a new apprentice to Bunnings for a can of striped paint.
Forcing new employees to clean work toilets with a toothbrush.
Telling the new employee to drink goldfish water.
Just a bit of fun
Bosses laughed at these workplace initiation rituals which were designed to humiliate new workers. They were seen as “Just a bit of fun”.
Laughing at the new workers’ humiliation shows poor leadership and flags a shitty work environment.
These “fun” pranks are called “psychosocial hazards” and they can impact on the physical and mental health of workers.
Psychosocial hazards include:
bullying
excessive work demands, and
poor leadership practices
It just got harder to ignore, overlook or explain away psychological hazards as “just a bit of fun”.
New Code to create great workplaces
There is a new Code of Practice called Psychosocial Hazards in the Workplace Code of Practice published by the WA Occupational Safety and Health Commission to support changes to the WA Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Implications for School Students
Work Experience
Doing work experience or work placements is usually pretty safe. Any organisation that is willing to volunteer to support your school has their heart in the right place.
School based traineeships and apprenticeships
Students doing school based traineeships and apprenticeships may be more at risk as they are in the workplace longer and may be in workplaces where there aren’t many people.
Part time work
Part time workers are most at risk. Young part time workers have low status in the workplace and are vulnerable to being treated badly.
Get to know the Code of Practiceso that you know what your rights are. Part time workers are usually not members of a union so they can’t relay on support if they are treated badly. The Code of Practiceis designed to support you and other vulnerable workers and you don’t need to be a union member to get this protection.
There will be workplace procedures set up so that employees have someone to talk to about bad work practices. Workplace inductions will need to make sure that new workers are aware of how to make a complaint.
There will need to be plans to eliminate toxic work practices.
Hopefully support for young FIFO workers will improve, women will face less harassment in mining sites and isolated workplaces will need to be safe for all workers.
Danielle Kabilio told me about these changes when we were having a coffee last week. She is a Psychosocial Coach at Careers West and is helping workplaces to put in new systems and managing grievances that must be addressed under this Code of Conduct.
She sent in information and links for me to pass on.
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If you want to be a doctor but you live in the bush, your chances of winning a place in a medicine degree are improving. The Curtin Medical School Ambassador Alumni scheme engages current Curtin medical students to help students in rural, regional and remote schools who would like to apply to Curtin Medical School.
Schools that want to engage with the program should contact the Curtin Medical School Rural Academic Lead, Professor Keith McNaught.
Curtin Medical School support for future RRR students
Curtin Medical School (CMS) has a deep commitment to produce doctors to work in rural locations. CMS fully appreciates that the lack of doctors in many rural areas, a particular issue in Western Australia, results in poor health outcomes for rural residents. CMS is also acutely aware that there are real and significant challenges for rural young people, wanting to study Medicine, and being educated in rural areas, often with significantly less opportunities than city-educated students. Rural students often have less Career Guidance advice, and may not realise that Curtin offers a rural entry pathway to Medicine with additional ATAR score weightings for rural students.
Curtin Medical School at Bunbury Careers Expo
In 2021, Professor Keith McNaught, the CMS Rural Academic Lead, worked closely with the President of the Curtin Rural Health Club, Jarrad Burgess, to develop and pilot the Alumni Ambassador program. The program was designed to have current Medical students, with a rural background, volunteer to promote studying medicine, in their home towns, or in towns and locations where they had connections.
Keith had generated a list of target rural schools across WA, and then Jarrad and Keith matched student volunteers to those schools and beyond. There were 26 volunteers, who will be visiting 35 secondary schools in 2021. The volunteers all do their school visits whilst they are at home on breaks, so there are no costs associated with running the program, except to visit those locations where an Alumni Ambassador is not available.
When the partner secondary schools agreed to be involved, they nominated a school contact person, who is the liaison person for each Alumni Ambassador. The school visits have commenced, and feedback has been resoundingly positive. Second-Year student, Ipsita, was involved in a school visit where she connected with an outstanding Year 11 Indigenous student, who is now linked to the Medical School’s Admission Officer, as she charts her personalised pathway to Medicine at Curtin.
Alumni Ambassador visits are most often to Year 10 and 11 classes, with schools usually aligning this to a science class. With Year 10 classes, the Alumni Ambassadors talk about the benefits of the rural entry pathway, and the subject selections recommended for Medicine. Year 11 presentations also focus on UCAT testing, so rural students are aware of the process and timeline, which will occur during Year 12, and also of the scholarships to assist with the costs of completing the UCAT testing in Perth. Importantly, secondary school students are referred to the website, where they are can obtain up-to-date information about Curtin’s Medical and Health Science programs and have links to access further information.
Whilst it will be some years before the impacts of the CMS Alumni Ambassador program are fully known, there have been immediate benefits noted. Secondary school partners have had increased contact with CMS staff, and applications for UCAT scholarships tripled from 2020 to 2021. There are few things as motivating for a rural student as seeing their peers, who they know from their school and community, studying Medicine, and being aware that it’s a real study and career option for them too.
This report has been supplied by Curtin University.
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There are more law graduates in Australia each year than the total number of lawyers in Australia.
It may take you years after you graduate to find a job where you practise law.
DIY Law
Not only are there too many law graduates for the job vacancies that are available, you can get advice on how to write your will online. You can file for divorce online. Artificial intelligence delivers instant information that law degrees take years to deliver.
People don’t go to lawyers if they can save themselves money by doing law themselves.
The demand is down. The price is up. There is a glut of law graduates looking for work.
You might think again about doing a law degree.
Law degrees deliver great thinking and analytical skills
If someone with a law degree applied for a job I advertised, chances are they would get an interview. The job probably wouldn’t demand law work but I would presume the applicant could problem solve, think of good wording for contracts and warn me of any dodgy stuff that was in paper work. Someone with a law degree would probably be a good employee.
On the other hand, someone with a business or commerce degree may be better for my business, AND their degree would have cost them half as much.
Make Smart Decisions
If you bought a car for $70,000 you would check out a few car sales places before you made your decision to buy.
All universities in Western Australia deliver law degrees. Pick two or three universities and make an appointment with career advisors. Check out what law degrees you can specialise in. Compare the different courses and support that the different unis deliver…. there is a big difference between the support provided by unis in WA.
Ask current students questions about the courses on Whirlpool.
In Perth they currently have four properties which are managed by UniLodge Australia:
Erica Underwood House,
Guild House,
Kurrajong Village and
Vickery House.
Each property is located within easy walking distance to the centre of campus, and Curtin are currently offering a discount of up to $2,500* when you live on campus for the full 2021 academic year!
In 2022 Curtin will be opening two new student accommodation options (a new halls of residence and a college!) in Perth as part of their ‘Exchange Precinct’.
ECU has accommodation at Mt Lawley, Joondalup and Bunbury. They call the accommodation ECU “villages” which isn’t quite accurate as they don’t look like villages, although the social life may make up for that.
Notre Dame Fremantle has accommodation in old buildings near the university. It has the funkiest accommodation to be found at any WA university. You can watch a video on Notre Dame accommodation HERE.
UWA student accommodation is across the road from the campus. I always thought it would be exotic to stay in the St George’s castle, although the rooms were cold and musty when I was at UWA.
