Pathways - Plan For Life After School

[Music] [Applause] [Music] up [Music] we get asked this question a lot you know what is pathways what is it that you actually do and and it's extremely broad it's difficult to answer that question concisely but i think probably the best way to describe it is that we're joining the dots of school for what comes next for a young person so we would we would help a young person prepare for what comes next whether that be while they're still at school whether that be setting up for after school whether it be an 8 hour pathway or a vocational pathway where we're joining the dots of what they do here at school ready for the workforce in whichever way they may be she had an idea that she'd like to go down the path of possibly health or teaching [Music] and so we kind of sent her when she was starting to unravel perhaps we could try a different path and that's when we approached the pathways office here at chilo and they've been nothing but fantastic thank you we pretty much organise the course so that it resembles what goes on in industry so we want our kids to be able to leave this department here having worked with equipment safely and also be able to leave knowing how to use that equipment properly especially with the cert 2 and plumbing we have to have a strong connection with the schools because not only have the students got a lot of work to get through in a very short period of time but they've got vocational placement as well so that requires them to go out onto the job and obviously get that experience and to get that organised we really need all the assistance we can in regards to the schools when the students attend college it does several things for them puts them in a totally different environment to the school different actions happen during the day it also teaches them a lot of skills that they can use through their life hand tools a lot of things like that it also opens up the door and gives them the perception what it would be like working in that trade area once they've completed that task it also gives them the opportunity to maybe do placement at different trade areas and the opportunity to probably earn some money pocket money work experience is a big part of what we do kathy lang is very motivated in making sure that we have that run smoothly but that's vital for a young person in making decisions about their future and i think that young people and parents are getting that message now without actually physically experiencing something we're making guesses we don't really know the nitty-gritty of what a job is so being able to be immersed in a workplace whichever workplace that may be is vital to actually understanding what choices you make in the future i'm jake crogan i'm a second year electrical apprentice and i work at scott burke electrical i graduated shalom in 2018 and in 2018 i also did my school-based apprenticeship with scott i was doing three days a week at school and two days at work as that's what i was allowed for and then um on holidays i'd work full time with scott and yeah so really you know i was allowed to do a lot of work in my time in grade 12 i think brooke as a person has faced many challenges in her life and so from that side of it i think she is was well prepared and she has a really massive care factor for animals my current job title is junior veterinary nurse i think that shalom helped me the pathways department helped transitioning me to employment through helping me have the day off school once a week get hands-on experience in what it's actually like to be like in the workplace not jumping straight in in brooke's case you're studying cert ii animal handling which is one of those steps in the process to doing her nursing certificate so to have them on board in work experience or work placement really gives us an opportunity to see who's going to go through and it's a long term plan that two years down the track we might have a new employee so having someone like brooke over two years be here with us it was a really easy decision at the end of grade 12 to say hey how about coming on board with us well i wanted to try something with animals because they're adorable just to learn how to look after them and the skill sets needed for it was amazing you don't know what goes on behind the scenes if you never actually do it it was just amazing like all the time that they put in to looking after all those little animals is just wow we we offer the opportunity to basically work alongside a zookeeper we ask as many questions as they like um get an opportunity to do the work so do the raking do the poo picking um doing the food preparation and those sorts of things and it just gives the students an idea of what it's like to work as a zookeeper and whether it's something they want to pursue later on well start off with it was quite hard finding someone who would take us because there's not many opportunities around here otherwise i'd have to travel out to children's or somewhere but when we got the call or the email saying that i can go i was so excited it was just pretty good so grace came she was very very excited to get here and then when she got here she was you know very enthusiastic and got in got the job done um learned a lot and then liked it so much that she's now a volunteer so she's now volunteering on the weekends and uh and she's continuing to do that at the moment so so obviously if she did the work experience and really liked it so yeah she's continuing on with that so hopefully that's something she looks at as a future career pathway we find that um a lot of the students are able to source their own work experience through connections they might have with family and friends or sporting groups and when students have difficulty finding work experience some we can step in and do that for them as well i like a challenge and yeah so it's a pathway for them you know if they don't want to go to university this is another pathway it is also a pathway that you could down the track lead to you know university if you wanted that pathway in you know later in life because you've got that cert free but then it's obviously a stepping stone for cert four and then any other you know certificate courses you might be interested in in other areas it's so easy to run this course with the facilities we got and then of course that we have access then to um industry so we get opportunities to go to other gyms we're actually looking at going to you know like city fit gym we go to f45 get a 3d just to give them that industry experience because you know in reality shalom's gym is not what it's like in the real world either so they get a taste of them what's life we also engage in with industry experts as well so they're coming in and looking after the kids and there's students that might not have the career path set out it gives them a you know a touch on base of what it's actually like in that industry and they might jump on board and think this is fantastic you know i'll go down this route and not only are they getting the experience of been in the industry but it also gives the employers an opportunity to look at the students working in their position and more often than not they get you know job offers and whether it be part-time or you know down the track as well so we've got that flexibility now with our tafe connect program where students can actually do their theory uh when it suits them so we still run through it in the course but if there's ever an issue where a student was unable to attend during that time then they can attend that or do that at the school through the tafe connect program generally i'm treated like just one of the boys it doesn't really matter to me being a female doesn't make any complications for me i push through it it's just everyday work life i've worked in other fields in area cafes where it is a female dominated area and it's no different it's been different to have a girl with us but yeah no it's worked out quite well with her she likes learning and there's always different tricks in the trade that you gotta learn you know being in this business so having jet two days a week gave him the ability to complete year 12 and also gave us the ability to uh to sort of bring in another uh staff member into the workforce as in a part-time arrangement it was a challenge at the start like it was it was hard to you know pick up on stuff that you know you were sort of away for but you know you you had adequate study lessons and everything like that to pick up on on your slack more than anything east case apprenticeships and whitman and us at the bonnevick branch are big believers in work experience it's a really good opportunity for the students to taste what the industry is like and it's a good chance for employers to check them out as well it's the first thing we look at when a student comes in and applies for one of their apprenticeships is first thing we look at is what certificates have been doing at school or at tafe and what experience what work experiences they've been doing that gives us a good guide to maybe where they should be heading so i'm maddie and i work as the marketing assistant at cqu university on the bundaberg campus one of my main responsibilities at cqu is to maintain the relationships with the high schools across the region going out to the high schools and working with the staff and the students to make sure that they're getting the most accurate information about post school options so when it does come to that time for them to make those decisions they are making um the most informed decisions that are right for them at the time those skills that you used in the sun program because you were saying that they were different to the the formatting and the presentation and things like that were different to what you've done in high school so did you do you feel that that also helped prepare you for once you were here at uni oh yeah for sure like and especially at the end of my high school like in term four i found that some of those um uni qualities i brought over and i was able to like add it to like english and stuff and now i can use that now yeah yeah that's great i just learned so much confidence in myself i yeah i felt like it just really was a nice introduction into what was expected in university like i had to do speeches um and different assignments but it was all at a gradual pace that i think was manageable for you know my lifestyle absolutely [Music] um talia not only did casual jobs but she come here knowing the expectations of an employer and what she had to do she was very attentive in what she was learning and had an interest which was great made the process so much easier well i became a apprentice here at um seeking building supplies in year 11 and shalom gave me the opportunity because they obviously offered the role and whatnot and gave me all the resources and everything i needed for my years here at cq so at the time of talia first starting our traineeship and we were actually growing and expanding which was a really good time for her to come in we were we needed someone um and she was learning new so mum and i like always knew i wanted to do nursing mom and i had a look into some of the tafe courses an email was sent out about tafe around shalom and school base and things like that and yeah then we looked into it and then i got accepted and there was only four of us in our class but it was really wonderful so my placement was at the new bundaberg private hospital we just started off with cataracts and scopes and things like that just small little bits and pieces and then as they as the hospital develop more they needed more assistance and yeah then it turned into me getting my cert from tafe and getting a job as an assistant nurse got a lot of um physical experience like even with some of the nurses i've been working with they said this is an amazing opportunity like i've had so much i'll know for the books and things like that i'll know how to do it properly in the workforce and it's going to help me with my nursing course at university because i'll already know half the stuff that i'm going to do there so we've got a relationship with blue dog training and they assist us with all our theory work and they're the rto for our school they're the main monitors of well they they give the students the certificate at the end of the day we deliver the most most of the practical work gets delivered through our school here through all the facilities blue dog provide all the theory and also the support uh at the end of the day they they end up well they're the arts registered training organisation that deliver the certificate for the students when our students arrive to our subject they're a little bit inexperienced of course they've had some experience with the mig welders a lot of big machinery that's in here they haven't had much of an opportunity for to use so we're developing the course so in year nine and ten they have exposure to equipment such as mig welders lathes and so when they come into here they have a bit of an idea on how to use those and we just virtually extend and broaden their knowledge and experience to make some bigger projects i definitely think that having one day off a week to come and see what it was like i already knew the people i was going to be working with it wasn't a new environment i had already been here i knew what to expect i knew the expectations of me i knew what i was in for don't be afraid to take the pathways that are available for you you don't have to be incredible at all those subjects at school to get where you want to go there's so many options for you out there for any students probably that are not sure like what they want to do after school and they think maybe uni is not for them i'd recommend probably just coming to see the pathways and see what they enjoy doing and if there's an apprenticeship or something that they can just try out and see if they enjoy it i think would be really helpful i definitely recommend the sun program like if you aren't enjoying a certain subject or you want to have a head start in your uni definitely take it on board because it's way it's way easier that's what i found and it'll help you so much when you actually go into uni if that's what you want to do don't be scared because it's um it's awesome i was unsure i was like oh i don't know about the workload but i just did it and i'm so happy now like i have so much fun and you meet so many people like a lot of the nurses i'm friends with now they're older but i have so much fun with them because we're all doing the same things and yeah it's really good honestly if you're thinking about it i would go for it because it's it would be a missed opportunity if you didn't try your hardest if given the opportunity i would tell them to be positive to do with a smile and just to ask lots of questions because who knows it could be your job one day if you enjoy it that much whatever may happen down the track i'm very excited to see where she's going to go and i truly believe i thank the pathways people both cathy and yourself lisa for being making that process so much easier because we wouldn't have known where to look or where to go and it was put to us it was out in front of us it was easy to do it is always so supportive there's someone to talk to having to do that yourself or maybe even having to do that a year later out of school we didn't have that support and having that has made it so much easier and the stepping stone to wherever she goes next will be fantastic if you're in a school-based apprenticeship if you're lucky enough to be in a school-based apprenticeship that would mean that you actually are starting your trade before you even leave school you can for every 12 months engaged in a school-based apprenticeship you're knocking six months off your post-graduation apprenticeship so you will roll into a full-time or permanent part-time apprenticeship on completion of school and you're knocking time off or you're still at school so you would go one day a week or thereabouts to your workplace and you'd be physically immersed in that workplace while you're still at school it's a wonderful training opportunity school-based traineeships work on a similar format they're usually about a year long and that gives you an opportunity to gain a workplace qualification while you're still at school which hopefully will give you the advantage once you have left school so both of them immersed in the workplace it's learning whilst in the workplace fantastic opportunities