Yr 11 VM Port Melb Excursion
Senior School
Wantirna College
VM Work Related Skills Excursion
On Tuesday, the Unit 1 Work Related Skills Students visited the Port of Melbourne to explore future career pathways. We were warmly greeted by Christina and then welcomed into the classroom with another secondary school. We started off by learning about the operations of Australia’s biggest Port and the key jobs in this work environment.
We were then introduced to Mario and Jason who have worked at the Port for approximately 20 years. They each spoke about how their different academic pathways and choices have led them to obtain jobs at the Port. Mario spoke about how he used his onsite training and experience to “climb the ladder” and go from ship captain to site manager. Jason however came from an academic background of a bachelor’s in horticulture. He had spent his previous working years in varying jobs working with the environment. He was able to see that organisation and teamwork were big parts of every job and he used this to become a Lead Surveyor at the Port.
After that, the SMART training team introduced us to ways we can pursue jobs and how we can use their trainers to receive licences and certificates needed to work at the Port.
Following the introductions we were granted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a tour of the control tower (no other school has been up there). The amazing views were used to highlight the different sections of the Port. Christina even showed us how the Port has an AI machine that offloads cargo from the boat and onto the trucks.
Before leaving, we went on a tour of the Port with Christina, who showed us the different areas of the Port and the systems they use to identify the trucks so the AI machinery runs smoothly.
Thank you to Ms Ball, Mr Daw and Christina for a wonderful excursion!
Milly Saffron, 11V