Whatever you have been investing in career education in the past, you will be most likely to invest more in the future. Teachers can become learning coordinators by connecting with others to form a learning network. This infographic gives you ideas about who you can collaborate with to support students to gain skills for life beyond school.
Dave Turner created the WE3 Framework which supports the move from exposing primary school students to career ideas, through exploration in middle school and work experience for senior students.
Dave told me to connect with Ian Palmer on LinkedIn. He is from School Industry Partnerships. There are some good tips for parents, teachers and students on there including information about work experience.
There are just 5 steps to get in place when you want to start collaborating with community or industry.
Governance: Agree on what you are trying to achieve together, who will be responsible for what bits, and to what standard.
Business Rules: All organisations have rules that govern how things are done within the organisation. These are often about your priorities as an education providers. SCSA delivers some of our rules for example.
Legal Framework: Schools are governed by duty of care, privacy and equal opportunity.
Financial Management: Schools need to be accountable for the money that they spend and for the way that resources are used.
Technical Framework: You will need to have some IT standards that ensure interoperability on one hand and privacy and security of data on the other.
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With so much competition for school leavers, teachers have plenty of opportunities to engage with universities.
All West Australian universities provide one on one career interviews. Everyone should talk to a career advisor at their chosen university before they enrol.
All universities also do campus tours and special information evenings. You can find an updated calendar of events in the In Focus Careers Newsletter.
Schools can invite career counsellors to give presentations at schools or attend school expos.
Murdoch workshops for high schools
Murdoch Outreach have been working hard to develop an online offer to help support teachers and school communities. Explore our wide range of online workshops and our inspiring podcast series.
Explore our online workshops
Your high school students can participate in our Outreach workshops, but online! Get them to explore the curriculum, build new skills and develop a deeper understanding of subjects through our series of free online STEM, HASS and Creative Arts and Communication workshops, which can be booked by teachers for a whole class.
STEM workshops
In our STEM workshops, students will develop their critical thinking and teamwork skills through using their imagination to solve challenges, crack codes, write algorithms, explore probability and design and build machines.
What is criminology? Can we lower our carbon footprint? How do businesses work and what do marketers do? Get your students to explore all these questions and more while working with their classmates in our HASS workshops.
In our Creative Arts and Communication workshops your students will explore digital painting, pixel art, portfolio design, personal branding, design thinking and ideation, the principles of graphic design and much more.
Join us for our Murdoch Minds podcast series where you will hear from our free thinking academics as we explore their career paths, current research projects and more.
Curtin AHEAD is a dynamic outreach program, fostering the potential of individuals and groups underrepresented in higher education. We work with high schools to raise aspirations and build learning skills, delivering workshops, on-campus experiences, mentoring programs and career-developing activities.
EcoChallenge Australia
EcoChallenge Australia provides an exciting and authentic learning experience for students in Years 5-12 through the online strategic game, Aqua Republica, to explore issues and solutions relating to water management and sustainable development. EcoChallenge Australia incorporates a sustained engagement with the principles of water usage across industrial, urban and agricultural systems and the impact upon ecosystems.
Innovative Schools Consortium
Through a partnership with Curtin, secondary schools can help their high achievers fulfil their true potential. Identified students participate in programs that build their skills and strengths in innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. They receive a record of their achievements that can be used towards meeting university admission criteria, gaining accelerated entry into Curtin or supporting their scholarship applications. Download the Innovative Schools Consortium flyer – [.pdf 270kB]
Learning Futures Network
Comprising more than 140 schools, industry and community organisations, the Learning Futures Network is focused on driving transformation across student learning and the future of work, while building deep learning relationships across communities.
The network provides an avenue for schools to collaborate with Curtin, and learn more about higher education, alternative entry pathways, and professional learning and postgraduate opportunities for teachers. Join the Learning Futures Network.
Professional Learning Hub
Curtin’s commitment to teaching and teachers continues after graduation. Our Professional Learning Hub enables our alumni to remain inspired, informed and current in their classrooms. Our innovative, practical and research-based workshops contribute to teacher PD hours, building better educational outcomes for the community through greater job satisfaction.
Curtin’s School of Education also offers networking sessions and presentations for teaching professionals.
STEM Outreach offers engaging and innovative programs that connect your school and community to STEM and Curtin research. We deliver programs, workshops, camps, excursions, incursions and competitions for students and teachers across metropolitan and regional Western Australia. See all the ways your school can get involved with STEM Outreach.
UniReady in Schools
The UniReady Enabling Program is one of Curtin’s alternative entry pathway programs. It has been approved as an endorsed program for high schools in Western Australia and can be run as part of the high school curriculum. It not only makes up a high school student’s WACE but, if completed successfully, also means the student is eligible to apply for a range of Curtin undergraduate courses.
Presently the course is offered as part of a pilot with a limited number of places. If your school is interested in the program, you will need to make an application to UniReady and pay a program licence.
Through the AIME Mentoring program, Curtin students are empowering Indigenous high school students, giving them the skills and confidence to grow and succeed. Read more about AIME
High school resources
This dedicated page provides resources to all the key questions we receive from high school students around admission pathways, study areas, scholarships, how to apply and understanding prerequisites. This will be a key resource for you to distribute to students with everything they need in one place. Visit the high school resources page
UWA Career advisers and teachers
Here you can access resources, request school visits or on-campus experiences, and keep up to date with the latest information to help your students find their path to UWA. You can find the information HERE.
School Engagement team
The School Engagement team supports students in Years 10–12 to make informed decisions about their future study options. Our team can advise on UWA courses, opportunities, scholarships, accommodation options, admissions pathways and more.
Please contact us directly for further information and to book:
presentations at your school
campus tours
attendance at careers expos, fairs and information events
You can also sign up to receive our regular e-newsletter, which covers opportunities, events and activities for your school, as well as the latest information on UWA courses and admissions. Contact the School Engagement team on schools@uwa.edu.au.
Notre Dame For Career Advisors
Careers Advisor hold the key to guiding students to their future opportunities.
To best direct students’ potential towards education and career choices that will enrich their lives, you need to know the facts.
We’ve gathered everything you need to know here to support you in your vital role.
Exploring opportunities outside school should not be a huge burden for teachers. These resources are designed to support teachers and students. If you are looking for something different for your school, contact your local university and request the help you need.
In most cases the links are through to the information provided by the Good Universities Guide Career Ladders. Where information wasn’t available on the Careers Ladders I have added a link to the most useful information I could find.
The Good Universities Guide has uni and VET courses
MyFuture
MyFuture has videos and great information about careers. It may be worth subscribing as all States and Territories contribute to that central store of information. It costs about $15 a year to subscribe.
MyFuture was created by all Australian States and Territories. It is THE most comprehensive career site we have.
In Focus Careers
I wrote a post recently with updated links to all of the key careers sites.
If you apply for a job with a mining company, or think you may want to work overseas, you will find yourself writing job applications that go through application tracking systems designed to weed out poor applications before a human sets eyes on it.
You need to know how to get your job application past the application tracking systems.
Nothing Beats a Good Job Application
Don’t turn yourself inside out trying to beat the algorithm. Your application can end up sounding phoney.
Just write a good application. Seek.com provides great advice on writing a good resume, or if you are still at school go to Youth Central for tips.
Key Words
The application tracking system will scan your application for keywords that are in the job advertisement.
If they are looking for a professional tap dancer you need to use the words “professional” and “tap dancer” in your application.
If you do tap dancing but have never worked professionally put in a Career Goal at the start of your document that says that your dream is to work as a full time, “professional tap dancer“.
Then you can talk about your tap dancing qualifications and experience that lead to this dream under traditional headings like:
Qualifications
Just list your qualifications, where you got them and when. A table of qualifications may take on a life of its own in cyberspace and end up a jumble when it is downloaded.
You can put in headings like:
Academic Qualifications
Dance Qualifications
Experience
Stick to what is important. If the professional tap dancer is required to work in a team you can talk about your experience working in a team at the local coffee shop where you were required to work under pressure and support other team members. Mention “team” in your answer.
If you can’t make your coffee shop experience add to your story, leave it out.
Referees
It will be best if you have a referee who is a professional tap dancer.
The Prime Minister may be your first best friend but he is not going to have any credibility with employers looking for a professional tap dancer.
Don’t Get Fancy
Pictures of your latest tap dancing performance won’t be picked up by the application tracking system. Leave them out.
Just save your application in Word or as a PDF, attach it and send. Don’t get fancy with Google Docs or Dropbox etc unless they say that is what they want.
Use Grammarly to check your spelling and grammar before you send off your application.
I don’t like pictures of applicants. It is an equity issue AND the application tracking system may not be able to read the picture.
It’s an Online Social World
If your application gets to a human, they will check you out on social media to save time BEFORE you get called in to an interview.
Start building an online profile that makes you look like the sort of person who would succeed as a professional tap dancer.
Set up your LinkedIn profile and start building your reputation as a committed tap dancer.
Join local and world online tap dancing groups. Build your reputation.
The Future of Job Applications
Don’t panic if you can’t get your head around algorithms and key words. Just write your best application. Remember:
In Western Australia most employers own small businesses so they won’t be using application tracking systems, and even some IGA stores just have a form that you have to fill in.
There are some seriously cool job application apps coming through which will make it easy for employers to find out about you… but probably harder for you to make your application shine. There may be a future in writing seriously cool job applications for these apps.
If you are in Western Australia and want to know about career opportunities subscribe to the In Focus Careers Newsletter.
I work constantly to maintain my knowledge of career opportunities and my careers newsletter is a conduit for information and advice to schools and organisations across Western Australia.
Please send me a complimentary copy of your insanely great and VERY reasonably priced In Focus Careers Newsletter.
At least we have moved on from that! But sadly, not far.
While women make up half the rural workforce and generate half the income, they are still almost invisible when it comes to leadership and power in the rural economy.
As with women in trades and in science and computing jobs, women in agriculture are ignored, overlooked and explained away when it comes to opportunities to participate in decision-making.
Women do not have adequate representation on rural decision-making bodies:
There is clear evidence of a shortage of workers in agriculture, the world is craving fresh, clean food and the industry is demanding higher level skills to address issues of climate change.
Despite all this and despite more women than men graduating from uni, women are still not being seen or heard in primary industries.
The Visible Farmer is a media campaign to increase the visibility of rural women.
Check out the series of 15 short videos here. Tell your friends. Show them to your classes.
Join the RRR Women’s Network to see what other women are doing to try to get a fair go for RRR women in WA.
Subscribe to the In Focus Careers Network
There are 120 high schools across Western Australia that save time and deliver better careers education by linking into the In Focus Careers Network.
