Careers

Year 12 La Trobe University Excursion 

On Friday 3 June, the 2022 Year 12 cohort and a dedicated group of staff headed to La Trobe University, Bundoora campus, for the La Trobe ‘Explore a Tertiary Campus’ excursion. Our students were excited to be exploring options beyond Aitken and enthusiastic about the opportunity to think about their transition from school and onto the next phase of their lives. 

Careers staff understand that La Trobe is not going to be the right choice for everyone, but the excursion aims to give students the confidence to undertake their own careers and course research, attend Open Days and consider all their options.

Upon arrival at La Trobe, students were addressed by Elise Joosten (Aitken College Alumnus and College Captain 2012) in her capacity as Advisor Marketing & Student Recruitment. She provided an overview of La Trobe and highlighted the huge range of courses they offer. 

From here students were taken for a campus tour by La Trobe ambassadors. Tour groups returned to the Agora for a short break before moving to the first of their nominated workshops. At the completion of Workshop 1, students returned to the Agora for lunch before commencing Workshop 2.  

Students chose from the following workshop list and received their two highest preferences: 

• Wildlife sanctuary tour 
• Podiatry activity 
• Law witness exam
• Anatomy lab
• Science / Microbiology activity
• Business trading room activity 
• Archaeology session 
• Engineering activity

For many students, this was one of the first opportunities they had to visit a tertiary campus. Reports from the workshops were positive and students came away with a clearer insight of what was involved in that course. They returned to Aitken excited and inspired. Some students spoke of being more motivated to complete their school work and to study and of a greater determination to aim for the ATARs required for courses they had explored. 

The students were terrific and displayed beautiful manners all day; it was such a pleasure to be out and about with them. We are also very grateful to the wonderful staff who juggled their commitments at the College to assist us with this excursion: Mr Murphy, Mr Salloum, Mrs Jarvis-Dymond, Mr Perri, Mrs Monos and Mr Gunarathna.

Year 10 Students

During the second half of this term, Careers in Life Skills lessons have been delivered to the Year 10 students. Many thanks to the Life Skills staff for facilitating these classes and for their enthusiastic support of the Aitken Careers program.

Almost all students have now completed their Morrisby profile and we hope this has generated some interesting and useful discussions.

This week, Year 10 students received a copy of the 2023 VCE / VCE VM Handbook and will be aware of the programs and provisional subject offerings for their next two years at Aitken. The VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) and the VCE VM (Victorian Certificate of Education Vocational Major) will be the 2 program options to choose between for 2023 Aitken Year 11 students. In addition to the information provided in Life Skills classes, an Information Night for parents and students for each program will be held early in Term 3 and on the first Friday of Term 3 (15 July), a Year 10 Panel will take place, where Alumni will return to the College to talk to the students about their pathways and any twists and turns experienced since leaving Aitken and what they know now that they wish they had known when they were in Year 10.

The decisions being made by Year 10 students during Term 3 are important but there is lots of assistance available along the way. Careers staff are looking forward to working again with the students and getting to know them a little better during their 30 minute one-on-one consultations with Careers staff in B21. Appointment times will be distributed during the first week of term.  Please get in touch if you have any queries or concerns.

Year 11 and Year 12 Students

We are enjoying our interactions with the Year 11 and Year 12 students and are currently working with a small number of Year 11 students to assist them with a change a subject for Semester 2. Year 12 students continue to undertake their career and course research as they contemplate their direction at the end of 2022.

The Term 2 holidays are a great opportunity to give some thought about what 2023 and beyond might look like. Many of the unis and TAFEs are delivering webinars or providing on campus school holiday ‘experience’ programs or tours (advertised in the Careers newsletters) to provide information to students (and their parents) about courses and about their institution. Students should consider attending those they deem relevant. We expect, also, to soon have available the Calendar of Open Day dates for July / August of Term 3. Try to keep Sundays available for attending these events.

Career News 9

Career News Issue 9 is now available and includes information about:

• A new Certificate IV in Cyber Security at Kangan
• Three new Performing Arts courses for 2023 at Collarts
• School of Entertainment, School of Design and School of Communication school holiday workshops at Collarts
• A change to the application process for William Angliss courses
• A pathway through Science to Medicine at Monash
• Campus tours at Monash
• The revised Swinburne Early Entry Program
• The Agile Program for High Achievers at ACU
• Criminology and Paralegal degrees in Victoria
• Law undergraduate degrees in Victoria
• A snapshot of ACU in 2022
• The Army Support Gap Year
• Careers in Real Estate
• Four new Commerce degrees at ACU for 2023
• A new double degree in Criminology and Law at ACU
• Environmental Science degrees in Victoria
• A snapshot of The University of Melbourne in 2022

and much, much more.

Careers Newsletter on My Aitken

Career News is written and published fortnightly and is available via My Aitken / Resources / School Life / Aitken News / Careers Newsletter / Careers Newsletters – 2022 Editions: https://myaitken.fireflycloud.net.au/aitken-news/careers-newsletter-1/careers-newsletters---2022-editions 

Contact Details

Please contact us via email:  careers@aitkencollege.edu.au.  

Mrs Clare Borg & Ms Rae Gibbs

Careers Counsellors