If you missed the Big Day In at ECU you missed hearing about digital twins.
Digital Twins from TATA Consulting
Digital Twins are the most exciting IT development I have heard of since ChatGPTburst into my world in late 2022. Like generative AI, digital twins hummed along under my radar some time.
TATA Consulting showed us their work on digital twins, and they are a seriously cool way of learning. Tushar Arora, from TATA told us about creating a digital twin replica of an electric “Formula E” Jaguar sports car.
As the real car races around the track they collect thousands of data points, then create a digital twin using that data. They then test hypotheticals on the twin to adjust performance. The twin gives feedback and they keep modifying.
I checked out digital twins online and found it is possible to create digital models of anything.
They have been used by BMW to create a digital twin of its factory, a replica of the Thames Water System was used to plug leaks, Tata Steel used digital twins to support radical innovation of a steel plant HERE.
Imagine the applications in sport.
MY MIND BOGGLED
We also heard from:
Microsoft, Bankwest, Wisetech, Woolworths & ASD
Michelle Sandford from Microsoft
Michelle is excited about the growing world of generative AI. She showed us a program she had developed to detect fake pictures.
Bankwest IT
Three Bankwest interns spoke about the IT opportunities available through banking.
All three were more interested in data analysis and designing business systems than in cyber securlty. They said that if you like the ongoing challenge of solving complex problems, IT could be the career path for you.
Wisetech Global – Get paid to work and study straight out of school
Wisetech Global is an Australian company that, like Canva, that has great employee reviews and which gives back to the community.
They have formed an alliance with the University of Technology Sydney where 100 year 12 scholarship winners get paid work at Wisetech and have their university fees paid as they study a computer science degree.
Wisetech Student Representatives said that they get to use what they are working on in their uni assignments and they get to use what they learn at uni in their WiseTech work.
You don’t need to be a maths superhero to win a place in this program but all three of the WiseTech student reps were pretty special. Apply for the program HERE.
Wisetech also supports the Grok Academy which provides free IT education resources.
Big Data at Woolworths
Ben Hagan worked part time at Woolworths while he went to school at Governor Stirling.
He did his computer science degree at Curtin and worked at Deloitte before returning to Woolworths where he has taken up an internship working for the extended Woolworths group of organisations.
Ben is on his third of four X six month mentored postings on different projects throughout the company.
Ben had the quote of the day:
We are swimming in data and the tide is rising.
Australian Signals Directorate
The Australian Signals Directorate defends Australia from global threats. It is the big player in cyber security in Australia.
It has work experience for high school students. You have to go to Canberra but there are travel subsidies but you are responsible for your own accommodation which I am sure Rotary in Canberra could help to find.
They also have apprenticeships across a range of occupations. Get details HERE.
Australian Computer Society
The Big Day In is a national IT careers showcase put on for schools by the
Students are invited to join the ACS to meet people in the industry and talk to students who are currently studying IT degrees at uni.
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Not many people are like Dave Grohl. He is remarkable. It is easy to see that he loved music and fun and adventure.
How do you hear your dream?
Dreams don’t shout “HERE I AM!!”.
Most of us look back at the end of the year and see that we have managed to do a lot of the things we love, so we are getting at least part of our story right. That sort of looking back, helps us to see what we want to do in the future.
There are lots of games you can play that help you to reflect and clarify what you like, so that you can focus on the things that give you pleasure. After doing some of these quizzes you are sure to see that you are getting a lot of your story right. Your results may help you to focus more on doing the things you love.
We all want to be like Dave Grohl and be remarkable. If you are feeling trapped and lost because you have no idea what your dream could be, go to see a career advisor. The foundation of their work understanding people and matching them with opportunities to be remarkable.
You can try sorting out your career path for yourself, but a good career advisor can set you on the best path without years of frustration and going in circles.
Once you are clear about your direction you will have power and magic that helps you to achieve your dreams.
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I work to democratise career information so that ALL students have every opportunity to find their dream career. Subscribe to In Focus Careers to know outstanding career information for West Australian students.
Boys in Western Australian know that they can earn big money without a degree by taking on an apprenticeship that will lead to work in the resources industry.
Female school leavers who want to work in the resources industry tend to go to university. There ARE opportunities for girls in trades but it is hard. Sexual harassment has been an ongoing problem that has caused young females to stay away.
Girls who want to go into the resources industry can find great role models who have done VET and uni pathways HERE.
Training Pathways to the Resources Industry
By getting a job in the resources industry, West Australian school leavers can earn great money without a degree.
Here are VET jobs in:
Exploration
Commissioning and Construction
Operations and Mainenance
Exploration Occupations include:
Driller
Field Technician
Surveyor
Drone Operator
Finance Professionals
Hydrologist
Community Engagement Professionals
Laboratory Scientist
Land Access Professionals
Commissioning and Construction Occupations include
Excavator Operator
Crane Operator
Rigger
Scaffolder
Electrician
Welder
Builder and Carpenter
Contract Administrators
Construction Materials Testers
Project Manager
Operations and Maintenance Occupations include
Driller
Shot Firer
Haul Truck Operator
Mechanical Fitter
Motor Mechanic
Automotive Electrician
Procurement Professionals
Logistics Operators (warehousing, rail, and marine)
Telecommunications and Networking Operators
Maintenance Planner
For more information about jobs in the resources industry go HERE.
Go to your local Jobs and Skills Centre for information about apprenticeships, traineeships and pathways to these jobs.
Resources Industry Jobs that require a degree
Exploration, commissioning, and construction
Operations and Maintenance
Geologist
Community Engagement Professionals
Environmental Scientist
Engineering Professionals (IT, mining, petroleum, rail and civil)
Engineering Professionals (mining, petroleum, rail and civil)
Data Scientist
Project Manager
Site Restoration
Earth Scientists
Environmental Scientists
Environmental Engineers
Laboratory Scientists
Water Management Specialists
Field Officers
Planning Officers
Community Engagement Professionals
Contract and Compliance Professionals
For more information about jobs in the resources industry go HERE.
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Where to find different exhibitions and lecture theatres.
Where to find student accommodation
How to read the presentation and demonstration schedule.
Get an authentic experience
Plan to go with a friend
Ask your friends to go with you and your family. What they are interested in? Make sure you know what they might want to explore. Make a commitment to support each other on the open day.
Your parents. will have the biggest influencers on your career choices, but your friends are great to bounce ideas off. They will give you views of someone your age.
Check
Check the university open day web page with your parents and friends to find details about any special courses that you want to investigate or talks you want to attend.
You may need to change the time you attend to see a presentation that is of interest to your career choice.
On the Day
Find out how uni works
Each degree is made up of subjects (units) for which you get points. (Check First in Family site)
Ask how many years it will normally take as a full-time student to get enough points for a degree.
Ask about subject choices for each of the courses you are interested in.
There will be handouts.
Ask about scholarships
There are many scholarships you can apply for. Ask the careers staff to give you a full breakdown of scholarships that could match your profile.
If you are interested in staying in uni accommodation, ask what financial support is available.
Clubs
There are a million clubs that you can join at university. You have more than a year to make choices so check out a few. You can join some clubs while still at school.
Book an appointment with a career counsellor
These appointments are free and it is the job of the career counsellor to help students.
If you get this help in Year 11, you will be more settled throughout the rest of the year and through Year 12 because you will have a stronger idea about what you want to do when you leave school.
Entry Requirements
While you are checking out the courses ask about prerequisites and recommended courses that you should take before applying for particular courses. You also need to know the required ATAR score and alternative pathways to uni.
Many visitors sign up for thousands of dollars worth of training based on a noisy 5 minute discussion in the crowded Convention Centre.
The Careers Expo is great fun. There are lots of giveaways. There are glossy brochures and high-tech displays.
People on the stands are friendly and helpful.
Of course they are!
You aren’t going to buy something from someone grumpy.
The biggest, most professional-looking displays, closest to the entry, with the loud music and happy staff, are investing a lot to get you to sign up for their products.
If you are interested in having a Gap Year check out which exhibitors will have information that will interest you.
If you are interested in Trades, check out the ones that will be of most interest.
Make the decision about which ones to visit and what you want to know.
You could also ask….
How much will it cost?
How long the course will take.
What are the entry requirements.
How long it takes their graduates to get a job in the industry?
What sort of work do graduates get?
Tip 3 See your career advisor after the expo
If you don’t know a career advisor, go to a Jobs and Skills Centre and talk with them or make an appointment with a uni-based career practitioner. It’s FREE. The Jobs and Skills Centres are usually based in TAFE colleges, they also have information about unis.
Each month In Focus Careers News helps West Australian teachers to guide their students towards career opportunities. You can subscribe HERE.
Go to the university open days before you make your subject selections for Years 11 & 12.
Go with friends. University Open Days are fun. There are exhibitions and tech games and experiments and food vans and displays. Your friends will have similar views and thoughts and they will help you to refine your ideas.
Take your parents. They need to become familiar with what is available at university and they will offer a different perspective.
You may discover ideas to motivate crazy dreams. Remember, dreams come in a whisper, not in a shout. By going to open days in Year 10 you can start to listen to your dreams.
Most students will choose a university close to where they live.
All West Australian universities deliver first class education so you don’t need to worry about NOT getting a world standard degree, no matter which university your choose. Your choice will probably depend on what uni is closest to your home, where your friends are going, and what feeling you get when you go to university open days.
There is so much to see and do that they can be a bit overwhelming. You can do some preparation before you go by doing some career quizzes. Your results may help you to narrow down where you go and what you want to see at the Open Day.
Even if your whole family has been to university, you will find information, tips and ideas on the First in Family site that will help you to come to understand the world of universities.
Planning Your Open Day
Make it a big outing.
Go with a friend. Your family and friends are the greatest influence on your career choice. If you can get both to go with you to an Open Day, you will have your power group around you.
Check out public transport and parking restrictions on the campus.
Where is the main admin building and where are the toilets?
Download a campus map.
Check the Open Day program and choose what you want to explore.
Plan your route and schedule any special events you want to see.
On Arrival
Don’t Rush
Get an Open Day map and program.
Find a coffee shop or nice place to retreat to and check the layout of the campus and events.
Plan your route and schedule, including university accommodation tours.
Don’t Miss
Find the coffee shops, library, student services, guild, clubs and sports teams you can join now.
Talk to staff and students in different faculties and check out their buildings.
Each faculty has lots of different courses. For example, the Education Faculty will have Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary school qualifications.
Uni Opportunities from School
Find out about opportunities that are offered to school students by the university.
Do they have programs for school students like UniReady or Aspire or student mentor outreach programs that you can engage with at school?
You may be able to join sports clubs, computer clubs, and acting classes.
“Year 10 Magic Happens,” is a career handbook designed specifically for students in Western Australia. This handbook is here to guide you as you explore your interests, find your dreams, and make your plan for the future.
Yuval Noah Harari 21 Lessons for the 21st century.
What do you love?
We do buckets of online personality tests, career quizzes and psychometric tests as we sift through our options for the best, brilliant future that we love.
The more tests we do, the more test owners can build their information about us into a personal profile. They link their data with data collected by others and build your profile. The older you get, the more they know about you. You become a commodity to be manipulated and used to their advantage.
Handing over our information to strangers online is like giving our house keys to strangers and letting them in.
Don’t hand over personal information online without knowing:
That it will ONLY be used for the stated purpose.
If it is going to be stored in Australia. (It probably won’t be.)
When they are going to delete it. (Optus has details of customers who left them years ago.)
It’s the law. There are 13 rules (principles) that guide privacy in Australia. You can find the principles in the Australian Privacy law HERE.
Companies are not in the business of giving stuff away. They have to get something out of it. Most companies offering “free” services do not have strict rules about how they are going to use the information that you hand over. If they are not being straight with you about what they are going to do with your information once they have it, don’t hand it over.
Keep doing quizzes
You need all the help you can get to unearth your best path through life.
When you start looking for quizzes go for government sites like MyFuture which have strict rules about what information they collect and how they use it. Check their privacy policy as an example of what is okay.
It is long.
It needs to be.
You can check out these sites and be reasonably sure they will not be using your information to harm you or try to sell you something. But don’t assume they have great privacy and security to protect your personal information. I bet every organisation is revising its privacy and security strategies after the Optus debacle.
If you are unsure, ask me bev.J@infocus-careers.com.au.I won’t be able to see their security regime but I will be able to check to see if they are complying with the Privacy Law.
Work smarter. Discover people, trends and career ideas to become a leader with new approaches to the career challenges of today and tomorrow.
We need tools that help us to make career choices that resonate with green values.
Sustainable Development Goals
I just watched a webinar on Green Careers from India. They are SO far ahead of us. They have strategies that:
build awareness that survival of our planet is directly linked to the manner in which jobs and careers are being practised. They take into account and create awareness of the environmental impact of vocational choices.
They suggested that we use the Sustainable Development Goalsas a prompt for helping people to identify careers that restore the planet.
After the webinar, I used the technique on a friend who is looking for a career change. It worked like magic.
She quickly checked through the goals and chose the two that resonated most with her. She has now gone off to check out what jobs she could do within two of the goals.
Okay, she is an adult. If I was doing it with school kids I would print off, laminate and cut up the goals so that they could play with and prioritise them.
They would need more support to check out careers that are consistent with their goals, and pathways to those futures.
I thought using the Sustainable Development Goals was a great idea, and using them helps career practitioners to do more meaningful work.
After the most COVID disrupted term we have had in WA, career educators have bounced back. They are standing on the shoulders of West Australian giants in career education to deliver world class career experiences to our students.
Here are some examples from the last few weeks.
Construction Futures Centre
Last month Kathy Moore, from Swan View SHS, organised for career educators to go to the Construction Futures Centre in Belmont to check out the career education resources that are available to schools.
Twenty eight career practitioners turned up and played their way through the simulation games that can be booked for school groups. You can book a tour for yourself or for a school group HERE.
Youth Innovation Think Tank
Kim Flintoff, from Peter Carnley Anglican Community School, is building on the work of the East Metropolitan Health Service which delivers the Youth Innovation Think Tank for West Australian high schools.
You can find earlier examples of problems addressed by schools HERE.
Year 9 MyCareerRules
Brett Neasham, from Governor Stirling SHS, recently ran a career conversations session for Year 9 students. The MyCareerRules session with ABCN and Bankwest was a great introduction to careers with mentors giving thoughtful, honest insights and reflections on their career journeys.
ABCN and Bankwest at Governor Stirling
Defence Force Presentation.
Kathy Moore, from Swan View SHS, had Defence Force Recruiting come to school to give a presentation to Year 11 & 12 students.
For more career opportunities for your students, subscribe to the monthly In Focus Careers News for West Australians
As the real car races around the track they collect thousands of data points, then create a digital twin using that data. They then test hypotheticals on the twin to adjust performance. The twin gives feedback and they keep modifying. 
TCS Digital Twin Technology
Michelle Sandford from Microsoft
Ben is on his third of four X six month mentored postings on different projects throughout the company. 
The Australian Signals Directorate defends Australia from global threats. It is the big player in cyber security in Australia. 
You may discover ideas to motivate crazy dreams. Remember, dreams come in a whisper, not in a shout. By going to open days in Year 10 you can start to listen to your dreams. 
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