Careers Experience

For the last week of Term 2 our Year 10 students have been busy participating either in the School Virtual Work Experience programme or with employers on external placements.

Being involved in work experience in one form or another is an invaluable insight into the world of work, regardless of the type of work or the degree of active participation.

The benefits of Work Experience:

• Career aspirations can be confirmed or the realisation that the career is not for you
• The understanding of the world of work is gained, first hand
• New skills are developed
• Team building skills
• Interpersonal and communication skills
• The relationship between what you are learning at school and what is happening in the workplace is developed
• Independence and confidence grow
• Motivation to continue with the career path you have chosen
• Exploration of Career Options.

Careers Experience at DSC is an integral part of the Year 10 Career Education programme. The Virtual Work Experience Programme introduces students to a deep dive into industry information using the digital platform, The Careers Department to complete a project. Students also participated in workshops conducted by external presenters, exploring digital literacy skills and work and job skills.

More than 160 students have been out on traditional placements this week, tasting the world of work on site at various work locations such as Primary Schools, medical centres, construction sites, law firms and Courts, Department of Justice , Hairdressers, Fashion Designers, Retailers, Logistics and plumbing, speech pathologists, architects, surveyors, real estate agents, dentists and fitness centres just to name, many!

As we head into Term 3 when students will begin to make course selections for their final years of school, they will now be able to draw on the information they have gained this week to help with their decision making. Students intending to choose an applied learning programme in 2023 are encouraged to participate in two weeks of work experience before entering the new VCE VM (Vocational Major), to strengthen the skills required for a Vocational training courses (VET) or commencing a School Based Apprenticeship or Traineeship (SBAT) 

Vanessa Ramsay

Careers Coordinator

Virtual Work Experience

Students in Session 3 on Tuesday took part in a drawing activity to highlight the importance of clear communication. While one student spoke instruction, the other drew without seeing.

The drawing on the left is the original design and the other two are what was recreated from the instructions.

Onsite Work Experience

Sebastien G has been with Thales Australia and here he reports:

On Thursday, I was taken to my workplace’s second office, where they run training and testing of air traffic controller devices. I was shown all of these products as well as how they assist in the landings, departures and separation of planes to ensure they are distanced safely while balancing the optimum time gap between each of them.

The experience was truly unique and I am grateful that I had the privilege to learn something school very likely would not ever have shown me.

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Priya has been shining brightly at her work experience opportunity at Pre-school. The kindergarten teacher said that Priya was a natural and had true talent when working with the children. 

Other students also enjoyed their work experience at early learning centres.

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Tahlia, Tomas & Ella report back from Anderson's Creek Primary School:

Our week at Anderson’s Creek Primary School has provided a greater insight into the education department and has supported us with future career choices. Each of us were assigned a class... Preps (Ella), Grade 1s (Tahlia), and PE classes (Tomas).  It was incredibly rewarding to teach the young students the fundamental basics such as counting to ten... or writing sentences about their weekends. 

We learnt how to balance the behaviours of young students, as we observed the many techniques different teachers used to keep their entertainment and engagement levels up.

Subjects such as art, music and Italian with our old teachers brought back memories and showed us how mature we’ve become in the previous 3 and a half years!

On Wednesday we went with the 5/6 girls football team to their round-robin and assisted with the coaching and umpiring of the day. On Friday we encouraged the school Pyjamas Day and helped to run the whole school assembly smoothly. 

Overall, this experience has grown our respect towards teachers and taught us what a career with younger children could look like.

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Olivia L. reports on her science experience at Deakin University:

For my careers experience I got to go to Deakin University. Being in this program, I was able to explore all different types of sciences which included; Molecular biology, Microbiology, Ecology and Chemistry. My favourites definitely had to be Molecular biology, Microbiology and Chemistry. 

In microbiology we got to look at many different cells under the microscope, we even got to extract bacteria from our mouths and prepare glass slips to look at under the microscope. 

In molecular biology we had to make a PCR test made from DNA from the inside our cheeks to see if we are carriers of staphylococcus aureus. We had to do many tests before we were able to find out our results. 

Chemistry was apart our last few classes. In this class we made colour changing water and instant ice. We also made ice-cream from liquid nitrogen, it turned out to be super yummy! 

The reason why ecology is at the bottom of my list is because being out in the rain for 2 hours sampling water is not fun for me. In this class we got to use satellites and a GPS to find our way around the park. We also got to look at bugs and their habits in different polluted water. 

Overall learning and working in a science lab was an amazing experience for me, the teachers and students there are amazing. This is definitely something I want to do when I graduate.