Career & Pathways
Senior School
Career Action Plans
Over the past few weeks, our Year 9s and 10s have been working on their Career Action Plans in Explore. Our Year 11s and 12s will get the same opportunity early next term as they start to look at post-secondary options. In Explore yesterday, we visited all of our Year 9 and 10 classes to provide them with some tips on how to get the most out of this process and the document. We also emphasised the importance of creating their Career Action Plan. Students in Years 9 and 10 are expected to have fully completed their Career Action Plan via Compass Insights, by Monday 15 July (start of Term 3).
Following the completion of these, we are excited to announce that your child’s Career Action Plan will now be included as part of their school report at the beginning of next term (and in Term 3 for Year 11 and 12s). Additionally, you can view your child’s Career Action Plan and their progress at any time, through the Compass portal. To access this, click on the Insights tab at the top of the home page, and select the Career Action Plan option for 2024.
Students are required to refer to their Career Action Plan during subject selection. It is extremely important that students undertake research and put the effort into completing these in a way that will assist them with their subject selection and future pathways planning. By undertaking this process, we are certain that students will be equipped to make more informed decisions and that they will be able to move forward with confidence into their desired pathways and beyond.
More information about Career Action Plans
A Career Action Plan is a dynamic planning document, owned and managed by a student. The Department of Education requires all students in Years 9 to 12 to complete a Career Action Plan, which is a useful component of career education and development, which will equip students in making pathway-related decisions throughout their life.
Creating a plan is a process of self-reflection and goal-setting. The plan helps students:
- consider their motivations and strengths
- choose their goals
- clarify the actions needed to achieve these goals
- commit to participating in the planned activities.
Students are required to complete their Career Action Plan with thought and care, and refer back to this useful document and process for assistance in their subject selection and pathway planning.
Morrisby Interviews
Over the past two weeks, approximately 200 Year 9 students were given the opportunity to engage in a personalised, one-on-one pathways conversation with a Morrisby-trained careers consultant. It’s been fantastic hearing students talk about their results, subject suggestions and possible electives they may be interested in doing over the next few years, as well as hearing some interesting career suggestions! We know that students have been discussing their results amongst themselves and their classroom teachers have also reported that students are chatting about their results with them. We hope that students have brought the same enthusiasm home!
It’s important that students remember that these results are not prescriptive – whatever Morrisby has suggested as your 99% match does not need to be your life choice. However, we are certain that this process and these conversations have given students a good starting point and some valuable things to think about as we move into subject selection next term.
There are still a number of students who are yet to have their interview – these students will be contacted via Teams when a catch-up day is organised in Term 3.
Finally, we’d like to give a huge thank you to students for their commitment and enthusiasm in taking part in this program; parents, guardians and teachers for supporting students in finishing their profiling and allowing them time to complete their interview; Mackenzie LeFevre and Maggie Murnane their help over the fortnight in making sure students were able to attend their appointments on time; and the multitude of teachers who helped with the supervision of the interviews over the fortnight.
TAFE & University Tours
As a vital component of our career education and development at Wantirna College, our Year 10s will be heading off on our annual university and TAFE tours excursion on Wednesday 24 July. Based on student preferences, they have been allocated to one of the following tours:
Tour 1: Monash Uni/University of Melbourne
Tour 2: Monash Uni/Deakin Uni
Tour 3: Deakin Uni/Australian Catholic Uni
Tour 4: RMIT Uni/Swinburne Uni
Tour 5: Victoria Uni/William Angliss Institute
Tour 6: Box Hill Institute/Chisholm Institute
Students will visit two universities/TAFEs via bus, and will be provided with an introduction to tertiary education and life, with an introductory talk and tour.
The details for all Events are now posted on Compass. We kindly ask that parents and guardians please provide consent by Wednesday 17 July.
Yr 8-11 Subject Selection
The start of Term 3 is always a busy one for our Careers and Pathways team, as students prepare to select their programs for 2025! We will be holding assemblies in Week 1 for Year 8 to Year 11 students where we will outline the subject selection process and important things that students should consider as they make these decisions. As mentioned earlier, we are excited to see how students’ preparation in Explore and their Career Action Plans will positively guide their subject selection and decision-making.
Students will be required to select their subjects on the following dates. More detailed information will be provided to families via Compass, email and Teams:
Year 8 – Friday 2 August
Year 9 – Wednesday 7 August
Year 10 – Wednesday 7 August
Year 11 – In Explore on Wed 7 & Wed 14 August
Curriculum and Pathways Information Night
5:45pm to 8:15pm, Tue 23 July
Our team has busily been preparing for this annual event which will be held on Tuesday 23 July. In addition to information sessions in the Theatre, the Pathways Hub is set to be a hive of activity, where we are expecting over twenty organisations and institutions as guests!
We are hoping to see a multitude of students from all year levels, particularly our Year 9 to 12s, who will have the opportunity to engage with universities, TAFEs, apprenticeship providers and Australian Defence Force Careers. By engaging with these providers, students will be able to explore courses and careers of interest, and perhaps use their discoveries to determine which Open Days they would like to attend over the July and August period (particularly for our Year 12 students!). The following poster illustrates the wide range of providers attending on the night.
VTAC Application Process
In Explore next term, Year 12s will be introduced to VTAC (Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre) which is the place where they will be putting in applications for their TAFE and university choices.
Students will be taken through the registration and application process and we will be spending several weeks guiding students through how to research different courses to find the best fit for them. We strongly encourage students to attend Open Days at various universities and TAFEs, which will be occurring throughout July and August. This will help students with their research so they can make informed decisions.
Please find Open Day dates attached. This information has also been posted on Teams and is displayed in the Pathways Hub. We will also post information on Compass if parents and guardians wish to engage in this process with their children.
Items in the 14th June Career News include -
- Dates to Diarise in Term 3
- Create for a Day Holiday Workshop at SAE
- Walk & Talk July Campus Tours at Federation University
- The VU Block Model
- Career as a Firefighter
- Exercise and Sports Science/Nutrition Science at ACU
- Exercise Science & Sport Degrees in Victoria in 2024
- Snapshot of Victoria University (VU) in 2024
Items in the 21st June Career News include -
- Dates to Diarise in Term 3
- Concordia College International Excellence Scholarship
- University of Tasmania Schools Recommendation Program
- Studying Psychology at La Trobe University
- Career as a Data Scientist
- Accelerated Bachelor of Education (Primary) at Deakin University
- Optometry Courses in Australia in 2024
- Speech Pathology and Audiology Degrees in Victoria in 2024
- Snapshot of Chisholm Institute in 2024
Jessie Dennison
den@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au
Tim Knowles
kno@wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au
Career Practitioners