Career & Pathways

Swinburne TAFE Experience Days

This week, we have been fortunate to have been invited along to Swinburne University’s Hawthorn and Wantirna campuses for some TAFE experiences.  Year 9 and 10 students were able to choose from days focused on their various industries, including Creative, Trade and Care Industries.

Creative Industries

On Tuesday 12 November, Ms Leanne Wilson and Fiona Tan took a group of students to Swinburne Hawthorn campus for a day focused on Art, Design, Screen & Media.  Students started the day with a presentation and tour to look at VET and TAFE options in these industries.  Following this, they attended a Screen & Media workshop, where they were given the opportunity to use the Adobe Creative Suite to animate a character.  Their final session covered the Art & Design field, with students partaking in hands-on character creation, starting only with an ink splotch.

We got shown around the Hawthorn campus and learned some of the areas and cool looking spots. We were then taught how to animate and drew creative characters out of ink splatters. We returned to school not only having done something fun but with a new memory to keep. ~ Lucinda Slegers

I loved both the character creation and animation, both of which I got something out of. I wish we had the time to do more. 

~ Hannah Haines

First we explored the Swinburne campus before doing work on Adobe Creative Cloud to animate a character. The final activity we did was character creation and making characters out of black splotches. ~ Lincoln Freeman

Trade Industry

Our second group visited Swinburne’s Wantirna campus on Thursday 14 November, where students spent the day focused on bricklaying and blocklaying.  Students had the opportunity to trial what it would be like to be a bricklayer. 

They were first introduced to the equipment used and were given a crash course in using a trowel to lay out the mortar.  Following this, they were given the opportunity to practise these skills. Once students had mastered this, they were then shown how to lay bricks in a single line, where they moved on to building a pyramid of 15 bricks. Students had to ensure they set all the levels up correctly to create a straight masterpiece. All students managed to achieve this challenge and celebrate their successes.  We definitely have some budding bricklayers in the making!

I think it went well.  I was struggling at the start but I stuck with it and I actually did a great job! 

~ Junior Sukaliana

Today was pretty good and I learnt a bit. It really made me think I could do this as a possible career. ~ Luke Anderson

I learnt a fair bit today. I learnt brick laying isn’t as easy as I thought. ~ Charlie Armstrong

Care Industry

On Friday 15 November, a group of Year 9 and 10 students were involved in a Care Industry TAFE experience day at Swinburne’s Wantirna campus.  Students participated in 3 workshops throughout the day, covering the following vocational courses: Early Childhood Education, Nursing and Allied Health Assistance.  

During the Early Childhood Education session, students learned about different levels of courses available for childhood educators and the day-to-day tasks required and skills needed to work in the childcare industry.  They loved the opportunity to play with some children’s sensory toys, to dress and change nappies of “babies” and to create some small dolls that children could play with.

The Allied Health Assistance session explained to students the role that AHA’s play with working in the health industry and how they support allied health professionals in teaching patients how to use aids and to complete their exercise programs.  Students had the opportunity to learn about 'gait aids', which included crutches and one-point and four-point walking aids, teaching the 'patients' how to use these aids and supporting them whilst doing so.  They also learnt briefly about reading a patient’s exercise program and supporting their partner to complete some exercises.

Students particularly enjoyed the Nursing session, which gave them the opportunity to learn how to properly wash their hands, with a UV used to check for cleanliness.  Safe to say that all students returned to the sink to re-wash their hands after seeing how many germs were still on their hands!!  They also had a go at using stethoscopes to check each others’ lungs and heartbeats, learnt how to listen to somebody’s pulse, checked one another’s blood pressure and checked for pupil dilation and contraction.  The students especially loved having a play with the patient beds, moving these up and down and messing with each other a little bit!

The day was highly successful, with students being exposed to what VET options are available for them in their VCE programs as well as looking at TAFE options for post-secondary education.

The nursing session was a really good experience and gave a good insight into the courses available. ~ Lara Wyatt

Attending the excursion to Swinburne has made it a lot clearer about what my choices are as I enter my VCE and look at courses when I finish. ~ Hannah Jones

I loved making the rope dolls in the Early Childhood Education session and seeing what is involved in the day-to-day work of a childcare worker. ~ Amy Revesz

I really enjoyed today, I learnt a lot about TAFE experiences, it was very interesting and I personally enjoyed the early childhood part. ~ Anonymous

It was very fun, my favourite part was the hospital experience. ~ Anonymous

Career News

Items in the 8th November Career News include - 

• Dates to Diarise in Term 4
• Reminder: VTAC 2025 Upcoming Key Dates
• Studying Rehabilitation Counselling at La Trobe University
• News from the Australian National University
  • Important Notice: Year 12 Applications for 2025 and Beyond
  • Tuckwell Scholarship for 2026
• Bachelor of Learning Design & Technology at Monash University
• Interesting Major in Bachelor of Business at Deakin University
• Advanced Diploma of Building Design (Architectural) at Swinburne University
• Pathway Program to Federation University
• Electronic and Computer Systems Engineering at RMIT University
• Snapshot of Holmesglen Institute in 2024

Items in the 15th November Career News include -

• Dates to Diarise in Term 4
• Reminder: VTAC 2025 Upcoming Key Dates  
• Accessing VCE Results 2024
• William Angliss Institute: Important Changes to Bachelor Degrees for 2025
• Pathways for Unscored Students at Deakin College
• Gallipoli Scholarship
• Doxa Cadetship Program
• 2025 VCE Summer School Programs
• STEM Hub
• Snapshot of Marcus Oldham College in 2024

Jessie Dennison

den@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au           

Tim Knowles

kno@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au

Careers Practitioners