Careers, Pathways & Alumni

HEADSTART EMPLOYER BREAKFAST

The HEADSTART South Eastern Cluster of schools held an Employer Breakfast at the    Atura Hotel on Thursday 27th May. Almost 100 local employers attended to learn more about how the HEADSTART program can support them with the recruitment and selection of work ready  candidates from our regional schools. KSC was well represented with Year 10 teaching staff and Gillian Raeburn the HEADSTART Industry Coordinator in attendance.    

Abishah Mudaliar, Class of 2020 Alumni was invited as a guest speaker. Abishah is currently completing the first year of her Commercial Cookery apprenticeship at Nini’s Restaurant, Hawthorn. She was happy to share her journey with the employer’s in the room and explained that the HEADSTART program had played a fundamental role in providing the contacts, and support to allow her to smoothly transition into employment earlier this year. Her employer Mat Lowry, spoke highly of the program and was especially happy  with the calibre of candidates we provide. Mat now employs 2 HEADSTART Apprentices and 1 Trainee  across his restaurants in Moorabbin and Hawthorn and is currently looking for a Business Trainee to work in his Marketing and Social Media Department. 

If you are interested in this or other opportunities through the HEADSTART program please contact Gillian Raeburn on 0429 893 832, email: gillian.raeburn@education.vic.gov.au or call in to the Pathways Office at your campus for a chat. 

Abishah Mudaliar

1st Year Commercial Cook with 

Nini’s Restaurant, Hawthorn

AKELO AKOWE

HEADSTART

Business Trainee with SWAN  PLUMBING

Attending Integrity Business College

Rosa Long, HEADSTART

Hairdressing Apprenticeship with ROKK EBONY HAIRDRESSERS. Attending Headmasters RTO

DIVINE BORJA is our latest HEADSTART candidate to be signed up as an 

Apprentice Cabinet Maker with  Diamond

Edge Joinery attending Chisholm  TAFE. Congratulations DIVINE

Alumni celebrate IDAHOBIT Day at Banksia

A stall was held at Banksia Campus to mark the International Day against LGBTIQA+ discrimination on 17th May. The date commemorates 32 years since the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from the Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.  

IDAHOBIT stands for International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia. 

Australians voted overwhelmingly to support same sex marriage in 2017 and this was supported by the Australian Parliament, but work is still need to combat discrimination.

Thanks to Keysborough Secondary College’s esteemed Alumni for stepping up and proudly wearing rainbow ribbons on the day.

YEAR 12 PATHWAYS & ALUMNI 

Acacia, Banksia 

Earlier in Term 2, the Year 12’s at both Acacia and Banksia took part in our first alumni session during pathways.

The session consisted of many alumni from different fields in which our students took keen interest in, students were able to exclusively ask and make connections with our alumni, helping them to begin their journey to their desired pathway. As Alumni Captains, we worked alongside Ms.Pham and Ms.Haluwadana to make the sessions as beneficial to us as possible. During term 1, our Year 12’s were asked to fill out a survey, and this survey gave us an indication of which industries our students were most interested in. Taking these responses into consideration, the Alumni team worked hard to cater to our amazing Year 12’s. Thanks to the alumni sessions we were able to learn from those who have more experience in life and offer their support and advice to us. It was extremely fulfilling to see all the Year 12’s so enthusiastic to learn about our alumni stories as well as being genuinely excited to ask questions. 

Overall, our first Year 12 alumni session ran very smoothly, special thanks to our two incredible alumni teacher leaders Ms.Pham and Ms.Haluwadana, and thanks to the House and Student executive team for helping us set up our space. We can’t wait to have more sessions like this to connect our students with our amazing alumni community. Special thanks to our following alumni who volunteered their time with us during our alumni session: 

Jasser Hallak '85, Leanne Stevenson '85, Brad Scott '99, Ryan Don Paul '07, Yeasmeena Berjaoui '12, Brittany Morrison '13, Anya Ristic '18, Claire Edwards '19, Alie Bekiri '07, Wayne Lawson '09, Phillip Kuoch '11, Khalid Katikang '13, Andrew Eav '15, Abishah Mudaliar '20, and Jenny Nguyen '20.

Alumni sessions in classes: 

Acacia: Graphic designer and 

Interior Designer

Monique Morrison, Class of 2013 (Graphic Designer at Madmen Entertainment) and Sonya Nguyen, Class of 2013 (Design Consultant at Metricon) – Year 12 Visual Communication and Design

One of the benefits to our large alumni community is the ability for our students to connect with specialists from different fields. Acacia’s Year 12 Visual communication design class were able to meet our two Alumni; Monique Morrison from the Class of 2013, who works as a Graphic designer at Madmen Entertainment, and Sonya Nguyen from the Class of 2013 who is a Design Consultant at Metricon. 

The intimate class setting allowed our students to have a more intimate relationship with the alumni and ask industry specific questions about their chosen pathway. A student from the Visual communication and design, Molly Solomons-Bruce, recounts the session as the ‘beginning of networking’ and allowed her to ‘take notes about their professional practice’ to use for her coursework. 

The session allowed our students to get a clearer picture about what their desired pathway may entail, further consolidating their passion to pursue creative design as a career. 

Thanks to the success of sessions like these, the alumni team is looking forward to delivering more in class connections for our wonderful students. 

Alumni sessions in classes: 

Banksia: Accounting 

Peter Raftopoulos, Class of 1987 (Senior Credit Manager at KPMG) – Year 12 Accounting 

As our alumni community continues to grow, we have been extremely lucky to able to connect our current students with past students who've been in their shoes. 

Recently an alumnus of ours, Peter Raftopoulos from the Class of 1987 and senior credit control manager at KPMG, took time out of his extremely busy schedule to come and pay a visit both our year 12 accounting classes during the term. 

Peter enlightened the students with knowledge of what it is like to be employed in an accounting firm like KPMG and explained the vast range of careers that can be pursued by undertaking accounting.  He also reassured our students of the unreliability in stereotypes associated with being an accountant, and even offered to provide any further support the students require, stating he was only a call away! 

The session allowed our students to get an insight into accounting as a career and participate in an intimate conversation with an accountant, who answered any queries or questions they had. The success of this session has inspired many more similar sessions in our other subjects in the future, and we cannot wait to hear more from our alumni!

Year 10 Pathways

Acacia, Banksia

Arron Li, Class of 2016 (Human Resource Associate at the IKEA Group) – Year 10 Pathways Interview skills

We were incredibly lucky to also have one of our alumni come in for Year 10 Pathways as our Year 10 students prepare for work experience. Aaron Li from the Class of 2016, and Human Resource Associate at the IKEA group, engaged in conversation with our students where they were able to ask him about his time at school, and the journey he had gone through to get to his current stage in life now. 

Through explaining his journey, Aaron gave our students an insight into his career choices and any advice the students may need to make their career choices, as well as advice on how they can hone their current skills in preparing their resumes and cover letters. 

The invaluable insight to what HR managers look for when hiring and recruiting was 

valuable to our students, and we are always so thankful for our alumni who give their time, experiences, and knowledge to us where possible.  

Tram Tran (Acacia Alumni Captain) &

Mariyah Hussein (Banksia Alumni Captain)

Alumni Feature: Leanne Stevenson Class of 1985, Chandler High

Leanne Stevenson from the class of 1985, Chandler High, has lived one of the most outstanding lives that we’d seen from our Alumni Network. Here’s her story.

In year 12, Leanne completed 2 weeks Work Experience at the Melbourne Zoo and had a dream to work with native or exotic animals. She decided not to go to university straight away and as a first step in 1986 became a Veterinary nurse to get some “hands on” experience at Dandenong Animal Hospital. She became a Head Nurse and after 8 years she moved on to start her own Wholesale Seafood Business! Leanne completed her Bachelor of Business (Management and Marketing majors) part time over 6 years graduating in 1999. 

Leanne now has her own Consulting Business and has over 20 years’ experience as a Senior Leader, with 15 years in the Identity Verification Industry. Leanne was Head of Sales & Marketing at VIX Verify and spent 14 years with Australia Post – her most significant role as National Manager Identity Services setting up the first photo points in Australia Post outlets and rolling out the first identity solutions. 

Her specialty is in Biometric (Facial Recognition) onboarding and Electronic Identity Verification Systems.

Leanne was awarded Runner up – most Outstanding Women in Security in 2019 and is seen by her peers as an expert in the field of identity verification. Leanne was a Director on the Board of the Biometrics Institute from 2009-11 promoting responsible use of biometrics.

Leanne still maintains a link with animals and has been a volunteer penguin guide at St Kilda breakwater for the past 9 years. She also volunteers as a mentor to help women seeking leadership roles within the corporate sector. 

Special and heartfelt thanks to Leanne who joined us earlier in Term 2 for the Year 12 Pathways – Alumni Session at her former Acacia campus. We all loved seeing her back at school and wish her the best in her ongoing journey.

Australian Army Cadets Information Night – Frankston