At HCC we facilitate career education classes for Years 9 and 10 every week. During this time, we focus on learning how to manage our career journey – which is a process that lasts our whole life. This includes developing self-awareness and knowing how to access the tools and skillsets needed to get to where we think we want to find meaningful and secure work.

Last week I found myself completely paralysed with indecision while standing in the supermarket trying to select a jar of “pickles” to go with a lunch platter I was preparing.

As I told myself how ridiculous this all was, it suddenly struck me that it might feel like this for our young people regarding the decisions they have to make as they embark on their professional career journey.

We are so fortunate to have so many pathway options out of high school, but maybe that’s part of the problem! It can lead to decision paralysis… and that frustrating sense of inertia.

This term, Year 9 and 10 students have done some self-reflection work, including considering what “career cluster” they might prefer.

Based on research from the Foundation for Young Australians, there are six Career Clusters that group people focusing on their key tasks, core technical and transferrable skills, and common outcomes. There are people from each cluster within each industry. The next step is a combination of considering what one might want to become more of an expert in (further study) and what the world currently needs (labour market information!). This can be another challenge. Especially as they make decisions around subject selections and higher education courses.

In career education classes, we spend time unpacking these two important elements.

The pathways each subject can lead to, and
Labour Market Information for those pathways

An example: Dance vs. Digital Skills

Despite knowing that digital workers are in demand, we’re seeing persistently low numbers of enrolments in software and digital senior subjects. For example, in 2021 (the most recent data available) there were 822 Data Analytics students and 1576 students that did Software Development. That’s just below 5% of overall students.

These are the two Digital Skills subject options available in Victoria - however, this is an observation that is replicated in other states around Australia.

But we need more digital workers – the Digital Skills Organisation predicts we will need around 60,000 additional digital workers each year to meet demand. If we do the maths, in 2022 there were around 50,000 VCE Year 12 students, and less than 5% of them study digital skills, which isn’t enough.

According to Labour Market Insights, we can see that there is a range of jobs for digital workers, all with great growth prospects and impressive salaries, which means students who do choose to study digital skills in Years 11 and 12 are well-placed to find a career.

We should also be looking at this in context; other subjects attract similar numbers of students but have significantly different Labour Market implications. Dance, for example, which attracts a similar number of students as Digital Skills (3550 for Digital Skills vs. 2317 for Dance in Queensland in 2022), is a field that only employs a fraction of the number of people; around 1,000 people work as Dancers or Choreographers in Australia, with another 6,700 working as Dance Teachers, and the majority of the work for both is part-time.

Students select senior subjects for a whole range of reasons, and Labour Market Information is just one of the considerations in their choices, but they must know the facts so then they can make informed decisions about their study pathways.

Overarching all of this, is, of course, the assurance that we hold as Christians, that God will direct our steps. We can trust in Him.

Psalm 37:23-24: “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.”

Proverbs 16:9: “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.”

Psalm 31:14-15: “But I trust in you, Lord; I say, ‘You are my God. My times are in your hands.”

Proverbs 20:24: “The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?”

Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to guide My feet and a light for my path.”

Proverbs 19:21: “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Isaiah 48:17 (The Message): “I am God, your God, who teaches you how to live right and well. I show you what to do, where to go.”

As Heatherton’s qualified Career Practitioner, I am available to discuss pathway questions with students and families. In 2023, I work part-time, one day a week, so the best way to reach me with your enquiry is by email at christina.douglas@hcc.vic.edu.au.

I will be available for short interviews during the school’s upcoming onsite Parent Teacher Interview night, on Tuesday 30 March.

You can also access our school careers website at any time which has up-to-date information and each student at HCC has access to a student account on this platform. https://hcccareers.com/.

Christina Douglas

Careers Teacher

Year 12 Art Excursion