Last week, our Year 10 students participated in Work Experience
Year 10 have spent several weeks organising themselves to spend a week in the workplace to learn what work is like and for many what it is like to work in industries they are interested in. Here are some quotes from the year 10 students when asked “What is a positive experience or story from your week?”:
“I got to design and produce my own jewellery line”
“I had so many fun experiences throughout the week.”
“I was able to bond with some of the lovely patients that were in the brain injury unit and at the end of the week me and my coworkers celebrated with some sushi”
“Had some great chats with the staff there and was an enjoyable experience”
“I managed to get a job out of the experience.”
“I got to feed baby animals”
“I had a little girl in year one make me a friendship bracelet and a drawing.”
“I learned to repair laptops and computers.”
“Every. Single. Aspect.”
The host employers were also very impressed with students from the College. Here are some excerpts from their feedback:
“Student was extremely respectful and I felt comfortable taking him into residential homes and meeting my customers and various other fellow tradesman and business owners.
He has also shown a keen interest to learn and be motivated and take initiative where possible in various plumbing tasks.”
“[She] did a fantastic job during the hours she worked. She worked well with the team and listened to all instructions and training well. She worked well autonomously also and was very trustworthy with all tasks assigned to her.”
“The student was keen to learn, punctual and was eager for a position at the coffee house.”
All employers who gave feedback indicated that they would be keen to have students in the future.
Feedback was sought from parents of their children’s experiences. Here are a few of their responses:
“Maturity - I have been impressed with the maturity that [my child] has shown with catching trains to the city and speaking to different people in the organisation. I do feel that this has been a massive eye-opener for him and definitely could be the pathway that he will take in the future. It’s now given him the confidence to understand what his future might look like past his secondary schooling years but more importantly what is achievable if he studies and works hard and the financial and monetary returns in this industry.”
“He has spent time observing experiments in their ‘clean lab’, spent lots of time in their ‘dirty lab’ - actually working with the soil and machines, and also completed a lot of archiving for them. Today he is out off-site, on locations with one of the geo-tech engineers, shadowing, and helping him. They have showed him the ropes and spent valuable time talking about their careers and the study path and experiences that brought them to their different positions within the firm.”
“Growing up I had the opportunity to experience work experience and it opened me up to tackle the workforce with confidence speaking from what I see in [my child] is of similar nature, she was a little nervous on the 1st Day but as soon as she entered that 1st class her nerves disappeared, she would come home with the biggest smile every day so far, stories about the kids and giggles when she talks about them, how she was made to feel like she was part of the staff at the school the list can go on.”
Mr Michael Roper
Careers Advisor, HSC Plus Coordinator & Year 9 Advisor
