Celebration / Congratulations

Congratulations to Juarne Ryan who has been signed up as a School Based Apprentice in Certificate 3 in Commercial Cookery with the Roundhouse Motel here in Peterborough. Juarne went to the Roundhouse and did a Work Placement after completing her Certificate 2 in Kitchen Operations at PHS in 2020 and as a result of her excellent work at Work Placement, she was offered this opportunity by the Roundhouse Motel. Not only was she offered this opportunity but she has been in paid employment with the Roundhouse since her work placement there.

The Certificate 3 in Commercial Cookery will qualify Juarne as a Chef and open up a great many future opportunities for her. This process of gaining a school based apprenticeship has been very successful for a number of students who have been able to use their Vet Course as a real incentive for an employer to take them on.

PHS has not had any School Based Apprenticeships for some time so this sign up is especially significant.

Students doing Vet courses need to start planning their pathway into a possible apprenticeship and can see me for help with this. Vet funding to pay for the Vet Certificate courses students at PHS do, in the future will need to be based on planned employment outcomes, so starting to think about what Work Placements you will do as a Vet student is a way of getting started on this journey.

Changes in the World of VET for 2022 onwards

There are going to be some significant changes to the way we as a school will be able to offer funded VET courses to our students from the start of 2022 onwards.

Up until now students have been able to go into a VET course at the start of Year 10 giving them a completion time before they are due to start Year 12. From the start of 2022 students will have to be in Year 11 (regardless of whether they are 16 years old or not) to be eligible for funded VET Courses.

At the moment students who are 16 years old do not have to pay any course fees for their VET Courses. Peterborough High School pays some top up funding for each students course, which comes from our VET Budget, but we will not be in a position to fund an entire years course fees for students to start their VET courses in Year 10 as they have done in the past.

The students this will have an impact on, in 2022 will be our current Year 9 students. These students will have to wait until 2023 when they are due to start Stage 1 / Year 11 before they will be eligible to go into a Certificate VET course. The certificate courses we currently run for students are Certificate 2 in Automotive Servicing, Certificate 2 in Engineering Pathways and Certificate 2 in Kitchen Operations. The new plan includes the provision for students to do one off courses like White Card, Safe Work at Heights and First Aid, which could be run onsite at PHS or possibly in conjunction with surrounding schools, when students are in Year 10.

This type of training does earn students SACE credits but is not part of any Certificate Course and will need to be paid for by the school/ students. The school will be able to apply for subsidies for School card students, which will help with but not necessarily cover the cost of these courses.

Students currently doing a VET course at PHS will have the right to complete their course in 2022 as they will, by then, be Year 11 students.

Please feel free to contact me at PHS (86512306) if you have any questions about these changes or School Based Apprenticeships.

Jenny Coe

Aboriginal Health and Community Newsletter