Central News

Senior School

HIA Trade Day.

On Tuesday 28 May Mrs Taylor took the Construction class and several students who are hoping to have careers in the Construction Industry to Tamworth for the HIA Trade Day. 1500 students from our region were given the opportunity to listen and question a number of guest speakers from the industry as well second, third and fourth year apprentices.

Topics covered included:

  • Changing nature of the industry
  • Employment opportunities
  • How and where to find work
  • Applying for an apprenticeship (interview techniques and written applications)
  • General information about apprenticeships
  • Employer expectations of their apprentices
  • The importance of being industry fit and maintaining your driver’s licence
  • Common causes for losing your apprenticeship (loss of licence, repeated mistakes due poor maths skills which result in costing the business money, not being a reliable employee)
  • Wages
  • Occupational Health and Safety

Students also had the opportunity to ask the panel questions and participate in a number of activities where they had the opportunity to win a high visibility shirt. Charlie Williamson represented our school in the ‘best meet and greet handshake’ and won.

The students thoroughly enjoyed the day and would recommend other students go if given the opportunity next year.

Guest Speakers in Careers.

Year 9 and 10 students have been given the opportunity to listen to Grant Clark from Uralla Shire Council and Tim St Claire from Apprenticeships Australia.

Grant covered topics including:

  • Moving to Australia
  • Working at Uralla Shire Council
  • Diverse range of career opportunities at the council
  • How to gain employment at the council
  • Benefits to the council and their employees having a nine day fortnight work place agreement
  • The importance of qualifications

Tim covered topics including:

  • Difference between a traineeship and an apprenticeship
  • What is a school based trainee or apprenticeship (SBAT)
  • Expectation of employees and the registered training authority
  • Financial and career benefits commencing a SBAT
  • Work placement
  • The importance of literacy and numeracy skills

We would like to thank Grant and Tim for taking time out of their busy lives to share their industry knowledge with and senior students.

UNE HSC Booster Day.

On Monday 3 June, Academy Chemistry students attended the HSC Booster day at the University of New England. In the first session, students learnt how they can investigate the bonding and structure of chemicals through the use of analytical techniques such as mass spectrometry, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy and Infrared spectroscopy. This included viewing and getting hands on with equipment worth more than one million dollars. In the second session, students completed three practical investigations which focused on determining the concentration of ions in solutions. This included the use of UV-Vis Spectrophotometry, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy and titrimetric precipitation.

I commend students for their efforts on the day and UNE staff for providing a valuable learning opportunity.