Careers and Senior Pathways

Dear VCE Families,

Thanks for your ongoing communication and support as we try to navigate together to allow the Senior Students to have the best possible learning opportunities whilst also being cognisant of well-being during these challenging times. 

We are hopeful of being able to run Unit 3/4 Trial Exams in the holiday period in the Kennedy Hall (please see timetable below). 

If COVID-19 restrictions prevent this, we envisage sending Unit 3/4 students their trial exam papers home for completion.  

Students will be given more information next week about these Trial Papers. 

Careers

The Careers and Pathways space for Term 3 has definitely fired up with Year 12 VTAC applications now open. I have seen many Year 12s one on one for their VTAC interviews and the array of future Career choices is impressive with interest areas ranging from Computer Science, Arts, Design, Biomedicine, Veterinarian Science and Dentistry. All Year 12 families are asked to read the EdSmart communication sent on Thursday August 19 for further information about the VTAC process. 

Sadly, as many Year 10 families would be aware, Killester College had to make the difficult decision to cancel our Year 10 Work Experience Program for 2021. The current restrictions dampened our ability to provide this enriching opportunity and all Year 10's are welcome to complete Work Experience during 2022 school holiday breaks should they desire. Students interested will need to contact me. We extend our sincere thanks to all work experience providers who offered placements and look forward to continuing a partnership with you in 2022. 

Fortunately we had a few students who attended supplementary Work Experience Programs which are showcased below. Congratulations to these students for their efforts to secure such enriching experiences.

Sarah Jogin St Thomas ADF Navy 

For my work experience I was fortunate enough to be selected for the Defence Navy Work Experience Program at HMAS Cerberus, and I’ve got to say that was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. It’s not every day someone gets chosen to have work experience at the Royal Australian Navy base, opportunities like this don’t just come every day, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and that is why it’s worth it. While I was on my four day program, I participated in hands on and interactive activities which included firefighting and flood stopping techniques, a boat trip, sea survival drills, visit to the fire grounds and Navy training simulators, lessons in knots and navigation, marching drills, RAN swim test, weapons display, typhoon weapon firing and so much more. I would highly recommend it to anyone that wants to try something different instead of doing the sort of generic work experience. 

Syriana Pentony St Margaret Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC)

On the second last week of the school holidays I participated in the MTC (Melbourne Theatre Company) careers week. Unfortunately due to COVID it had to take place over zoom. On the first day we were introduced to Vivienne Poznanski who is a stage manager for MTC and Bernard Sam who is an actor who toured and starred in a production called “Hungry Ghost”. We got to know the rest of the students who were participating in a theatrical show and tell. We learnt about creative writing and the lifecycle of a MTC show. Each day we started with a warm up and finished with a reflection. On the second day we had a costume and set design workshop with the brilliant set and costume designer Christina Smith which was followed by a careers panel with the scenic art, wardrobe and production department of the MTC. On Wednesday we participated in a stage management workshop with the one and only Vivienne Poznanski where she explained what she did and what role she played as a stage manager in a show. This was followed by a prop activity. Later that day we had a career panel with the marketing and development team of the MTC. The next day we had a directing workshop with the lovely and talented Petra Kalive. She walked us through an exercise she liked to do to help her actors get into character physically. Later that day we had an interpreting script workshop with the wonderful Bernard Sam. He taught us how to interpret and analyse scripts using methods he learnt at his time in VCA (Victorian College of Arts). On our last day we did a group performance in the morning. We were divided into breakout rooms and had to come up with a 1-2 minute scene that had to take place in a supermarket and had to have an accident in it and then perform it. They then gave us a genre and we had to tweak the play to fit said genre. This was followed up by an actors panel and we got to meet the talented leads Grace Cummings and Michael Wahr from the MTC play called “Berlin”. Overall the experience was very insightful into the life of theatre and performing. It was also very comforting to know that there were others out there that understood the need to perform.

Candice Chan Chai Ying St Thomas IA Design

During the June/July school holidays, I had the privilege of gaining a work experience placement at IA Design which is a leading national interior design and architectural consultancy company. The five-day placement consisted of designing the interior of a mock head office of a given client whilst considering the client brief, aesthetic, and spatial requirements such as specific rooms requested, and the amount of people the room needs to cater for. Once I completed my desired design of the head office, I created it using AutoCAD, a computer aided design (CAD) software which allows architects, engineers, and construction professionals to generate precise 2D and 3D drawings. Part of the design process was choosing the finishes, hence, I was able to select from various samples of fabrics, wall paint, laminents, stone, tile, ceiling, wall finishes and many more, to create an overall aesthetic of the design. I designed a Design Intent Presentation which collated all my ideas and ended the week by conducting a board meeting with the IA Design staff and presenting my final product. Furthermore, I was also able to experience Virtual Reality (VR) of 3D rendering of interior designs and visited an on-site project IA Design was currently working on. During the five-day work experience placement, IA Design were extremely supportive and always happy to help. I acquired so much knowledge and skills at IA Design and it was a work placement I thoroughly enjoyed and will cherish forever.

Zoe Anderson

Careers and Pathways Educator