Career News

Rebecca Ambrose

What a term… we’ve had visits from universities & TAFE (JCU, UQ, CQU and Bond), Aviation Australia, UQ residential Colleges, had employer visits including education, nursing & midwifery and medicine. Our Year 10s attended the BLA Cairns Careers and Employment expo, and had their Senior subject choices information sessions and 1-1 family meetings with our team. A number of students participated in Women Who Weld program delivered by the Cairns Manufacturing Hub and 26 students are currently participating in the CEDC Aspire to Teach program in conjunction with St Gerard Majella each week.

QTAC applications are due!

Year 12s heading to university (and some TAFE courses) in 2024 and 2025 should be putting in a QTAC application or the TAC application for whatever Australian state they want to study in. First place to start is www.qtac.edu.au. Students have been provided with many resources to help them with this process and are encouraged to contact QTAC over the break if they have any questions or issues with their application (email or phone).

Year 9 Work Experience in 2024

Year 9s are starting their preparation for Work Experience in 2024. We will be holding our Work Experience in Week 10 Term 1. VPG will be assisting to deliver the program and our student induction session will be October 17 (Wk 3). There will be a follow up information session for parents/guardians via zoom that evening, from 5.30pm. More information will be coming to Year 9 parents about the program via email. In Week 4 next term, students will be undertaking ‘job interviews’ with VPG staff for the program. We will be preparing our students for this exciting week through our SEL lessons.

Please use this holiday to explore options, a great place to start is myfuture

myfuture is a great website that will assist you in doing some quality career research, especially now as key decisions need to be made for senior schooling or life after school.

On the myfuture website you can find information about:

My career profile - Complete activities to identify interests, values and skills and view suggested occupations to explore career pathways.
Occupations - Explore over 350 occupations describing tasks, skill levels and current labour market information.
Industries - Access important information (including employment prospects) for each industry.
Career articles - Discover practical information to support your career exploration.
Courses - Discover a course for you by viewing current higher education and vocational education and training (VET) courses.
Career bullseyes - Find out what career pathways are related to school subjects that you like.
Career stories - Learn tips and tricks by reading real-life career stories about personal experiences.
Job Seeker resources - Discover resume and cover letter templates and other resources to help you find and gain a job.
User guide videos - View short videos that demonstrate key sections of the website to learn how to get the most out of myfuture.

You have to sign up to the site, but it is free and they only ask for an email address (use your school email) and your postcode.

Another useful resource for job exploration is the Skillsroad website, which allows you to explore careers and do a career quiz, do a job fit test and search jobs. You can also find information on:

Uncover your skillset
Find careers that fit
Get job ready
Land the right job
Explore career opportunities
Explore 360 degrees virtual workplaces
Explore industries
Create a compelling resume
Choosing school subjects
Prepare for interviews
Resume and cover letter templates
Training workbook.

Looking for an apprenticeship or traineeship in 2024?

Connected jobs and training have apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities through Group Training Organisations. A group training organisation (GTO) is a corporation established predominately to provide training and employment opportunities. They employ apprentices and trainees and are responsible for ensuring that those employees receive suitable training and experience. Click here to find apprenticeship opportunities in:

Automotive
Building/Trades
Business
Business and ICT
Health
Metal and Engineering

Click here to subscribe to receive notifications of current positions.

Australian Defence Force (ADF) information sessions

The Australian Defence Force holds information sessions where you can find out what the ADF offer, job prospects, life in the ADF and much more. Click on a link below for more information about the session including location and event time. You need to register if you want to attend a session. Note that some of these events are during the September school holidays:

19/09/2023 Women in Defence Information Session

21/09/2023 Cairns: Army Reserve Information Session

26/09/2023 Cairns: School to Service Information Session

Women in the Australian Defence Force (ADF)

The Defence Jobs website has a section dedicated to Women in the ADF. It looks at equal career opportunities, lifestyle, flexible working conditions, family support and short commitment options for women.

CAREER EXPLORATION

CSIRO virtual work experience

In 2023, the CSIRO virtual work experience program supports students to undertake work experience remotely. You will undertake collaborative, group science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) projects, including projects linked to real-world CSIRO research and industry challenges. Instead of attending a CSIRO site, experienced CSIRO staff will supervise groups of students remotely using a secure online platform. The groups will comprise of five to ten students who may be remote from each other and who will work together to complete tasks that can be used as part of portfolios and help inform your study and career plans.

To be eligible you must be:

in Year 10 or 11 and aged 15-17 years for the duration of the work experience
enrolled in a school in Australia
able to commit to a designated week between July and December 2023
be supported by a teacher, parent or other approved adult in your physical location throughout the work experience project.

Click here to find out more.

Is Following Your Work Passion Overrated?

Experts say the pandemic and resulting changes in the working world may be encouraging people to rethink how essential passion for your job really is. Follow your passion. It’s perhaps the most common advice given to job seekers. The implication: You can only be your best at work when you’re doing something you truly love. Yet according to a growing body of research, an overemphasis on passion for one’s work can be detrimental in a number of ways. Click here to read the full article by Alina Tugend for the New York Times.

Life after ATAR: Navigating the world of offers, preferences and pathways

You’ve almost finished year 12 — congratulations! You’ve already tackled a range of challenges this year with a hard-earned rest just around the corner. December is always a busy time of year with results being released and some big decisions to be made for 2024. Once you get your ATAR, you may have lots of questions on where to go and what to do next. The Good Universities Guide blog have a vast amount of information to help you navigate the world outside high school. Click here to find out more about:

Making sense of your ATAR
Change of preference
Offers
Pathways to uni
Vocational education
Taking a gap year

Want to 'help people'? There are many different jobs options

Allied Health is the biggest and fastest growing industry area in Australia. According to Allied Health Professions Australia, allied health professionals are made up of Arts therapists, Audiologists, Diagnostic Radiographers/Medical Imaging Technologists, Chiropractors, Dietitians, Exercise Physiologists, Genetic Counsellors, Music Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Optometrists, Orthopedists, Orthotist/Prosthetists, Osteopaths, Perfusionists, Physiotherapists, Podiatrists, Psychologists, Rehabilitation Counsellors, Social Workers, Sonographers and Speech Pathologists. Read more about allied health professions here and also do a search on the myfuture website (you can ‘Sign up’ for free).

Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Manager

Are you looking into a career in Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Manager? They plan, organise, direct, control and coordinate advertising, public relations, sales and marketing activities within organisations. Click here to find out more about this job including:

Australia's booming film and television industry creates jobs for below-the-line crew

From Baz Luhrmann's blockbuster biopic Elvis to Russell Crowe's vision for Aussiewood, Australia is gaining popularity as a location for long-form TV drama and film productions. More "below-the-line" workers are needed to manage large-scale productions both in studio and on location, but how realistic is it to find work behind the scenes and what is the formula for success? Click here to read the full ABC article including:

Who are below-the-line workers?
Opportunities in regional areas
Doing the non-creative stuff in a creative world
Screen credits are gold on your CV
Networking opportunities

Getting paid the right amount

Visit the Fair Work Ombudsman website for information about pay obligations, including minimum wages and the rules regarding unpaid work. You can also find information about:

Pay and wages
Leave
Starting employment
Employment conditions
Workplace problems
Ending employment

Teamwork skills: Definition and examples

Having strong teamwork skills are essential to succeeding at work, no matter your industry or job title. Working well with clients, colleagues, managers and other people in your workplace can help you complete tasks efficiently while creating an enjoyable environment both for yourself and others. An organisation that focuses on good teamwork skills is typically a healthy, high-functioning workplace. Click here to read an Indeed article, where they take a closer look at what teamwork skills are, how you can improve them and other soft skills that can help you be a good teammate including:

What are teamwork skills?
Why are teamwork skills important?
Examples of teamwork skills
How to improve your teamwork skills

The state of AI in 2023: Generative AI's breakout year

As organizations rapidly deploy generative AI tools, survey respondents expect significant effects on their industries and workforces. The latest annual McKinsey Global Survey on the current state of AI confirms the explosive growth of generative AI (gen AI) tools. Less than a year after many of these tools debuted, one-third of our survey respondents say their organizations are using gen AI regularly in at least one business function. Amid recent advances, AI has risen from a topic relegated to tech employees to a focus of company leaders. Click here to read the article which discusses:

Every university offers scholarships – look at the institution you want to attend and explore their scholarships. You can contact the Scholarship team in every university for assistance and support in completing the requirements.

Commonwealth Scholarships

There are three types of Commonwealth scholarships:

Student Start-Up Loan – Available to eligible full-time students in higher education who receive Youth Allowance, Austudy or ABSTUDY Living Allowance and you must apply.

Relocation Scholarship – This is an annual payment to help eligible ABSTUDY or Youth Allowance students with their higher education if they have relocated to, or from, a regional or remote area to study.

Payments and support for Indigenous Australians - You may be eligible if you’re studying or training. ABSTUDY is a group of payments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students or apprentices.

Financial support when leaving school

The Australian Government Services Australia could provide financial and other assistance to you when you leave school. If you are planning on further study, apprenticeship, traineeship or looking for full time work you can find out what support you can get here. Read about Payments for students and trainees and Financial and health support for young people as well as more information about government financial assistance for further study. You can read more on the Department of Education, Skills and Employment’s Study Assist website.

If you are looking for work, an internship or starting your own business, they have options to support your next step. Read about the help you can get while looking for work or doing an Australian Apprenticeship. You can also get help from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment’s Job Hub website with:

Exploring industries with entry-level jobs
Find employers in your chosen industry
Jobs in demand by location
Updates and information

Youth Allowance from the Australian Government

Youth Allowance is for young people who need financial support while studying, training or looking for a job. You may be eligible if you are a full-time student or apprentice aged 16 to 24 or aged 16 to 21 and are looking for a full-time job or combining part-time study with looking for work. To get Youth Allowance as a student or an Australian Apprentice you will need to be assessed as dependent or independent.

Click here to find out more about:

What you need to do; Who can get it; How much you can get; How to prepare to claim; How to claim; When you'll get your first payment; How to report and manage your payment.

School Leavers Support

The Australian Government's Your Career, has developed a School Leavers Support package to assist Year 12 school leavers to make a smooth transition to their new life. Click here to find more information on:

Life after school – what will you do next?
Choose a pathway that's right for you
Explore different journeys for school leavers
Resources - School leavers information kit

Your Study Options

With so many options available to you, you may be feeling a little overwhelmed. But don't worry - there are plenty of ways to narrow down your course options. At the end of the day, the most important things are that you choose a course that you enjoy, suits you and your lifestyle and will help you achieve the outcomes you want - whether that be a career or simply skills and knowledge in an area of interest. Click https://www.gooduniversitiesguide.com.au/study-information/study-options here to read The Good Universities Guide's article which included information on: Course selection and regulation; Qualification types; Study options; Links to: Australian Universities & TAFE + search by Field of Work.

Other sites are useful as well including www.courseseeker.edu.au

A stress management mind set

Focus on what you can control and do it well - try not to spend emotional energy on what is out of your control
Give yourself credit when it is due - we don't get everything right all the time but own the wins
You don't have to solve everyone else's problems - manage yourself well and you will be a good friend
Don't get or keep being sucked into believing everything you read or see on social media - it's all too often 'just a made up story'
What you think is how you are - watch the self talk or the conversations in your head that you have with yourself. We are too often our own worst critics. Listen to the positive voice.
Make sure that you have regular 'Me Time' - time to sit, unwind and do something you like doing

Forgetting and retaining

Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who studied memory. He discovered the forgetting curve which looks at the decline of memory retention. It showed that forgetting occurs most rapidly shortly after you stop learning a subject. The greatest loss is within a few hours. The speed you forget gradually slows down as time goes on. Visit The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve – And How To Overcome It for more information about the forgetting curve. Two strategies for memory retention are:

Better memory representation (e.g. mnemonic techniques) – Coming up with a song is a commonly used mnemonic technique. An example is how children remember their ABCs. Other types include names, expressions, models, odes, note organisation, images, connections and spellings. An example of using a name as a mnemonic is Roy G Biv (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) to remember the colours of the rainbow.
Repetition based on active recall (especially spaced repetition) – When learning new information, spacing out revision sessions over time makes items easier to remember. It is more effective to do your revision over many weeks, rather than the night before the exam. Plan your review of material to start the first day after it is acquired, a second time about a week after that and finally a few weeks later. This is what you do in the revision part of homework. Active recall means that you test yourself following each revision session.

Study smarter not harder

UQ has put together some study skills for their students that can be useful for Year 11 and 12 people. Check them out here including general study skills, exam tips and assignment.

Kind regards

Rebecca Ambrose

Careers Advisor

rambrose@cns.catholic.edu.au