These are some of the things the Careers Department was involved in this year.
• Exploring Careers and Building Skills: Throughout the year students have had opportunities to attend courses, taster events, and have experiences to help explore various careers they were interested in and /or that assisted in obtaining work whether it be part-time or full-time.
Some of these experiences and courses this year have been in Customer Service, License Control, Barista, Food Safety, Defensive Driving, Film-making & Production, Art and self-employment, Science and Science Camps, Maori and Pacific Island Culture, Tourism, and First Aid.
• You’re Going on a Job Hunt? Many students attended workshops or came for one on one support in building the following job search skills:
The C.V. – Essential to your Personal Marketing Campaign
The Letters – How to write Speculative, Application, Cover and Thank you letters and when!
That Personal Contact – Keeping your application alive, cold calling, telephone skills and online image
How to Get that Elusive Job Experience – Work experience and volunteer opportunities
Best Ways to Look for a Job – The Top 10 Mistakes Job Hunters Make – and How You can Avoid Them!
The Interview – What you really need to know!
• The Career Maze: As the year developed we spent time supporting students in their quest to find their place in the world, identifying their values, interests and strengths and guiding them in discovering potentially satisfying careers through our career guidance services and our wide selection of brochures, websites, prospectuses, DVDs and more to support explorations.
• Further Education: Students visited the Career Resource Centre to find out about applications, courses, Universities, Polytechnics and Training Organisations.
Liaison Visits – We were visited by many University, Polytechnic and Training Organisation Liaison Officers to help with course selections, preparation for University life and comparisons of courses.
Campus Visits – Tertiary Open Day was held in May and gave senior students the opportunity to visit a variety of training organisations. We also arranged individual visits to various campuses and Open Days.
Scholarships – The BreakOut Scholarship programme is increasingly being used as students hunted out what scholarships they were eligible for.
Applications – We guided students through their applications e.g. for Teacher’s College, Nursing, University, Polytechnic etc…
• Maori and Pacific Islands Students: A wide variety of activities are supported through the Careers Department such as the After School Homework Programme, Maori and Pacific Islands Student Leadership Teams, Pacific Islands and Maori Student Community Group Meetings, PI Cultural Performance Group, Buddy/Mentor Programme for Yr9 students, and topic-based career education workshops including Career Exploration, CV Writing, and guests from our Pacific Islands and Maori communities. More about some of these groups following on from here.
• The Classes: The Careers Department also provided two subject classes for the school, Career Pathways, a Level 2 class which actively teaches key vocational skills and identifies suitable careers for students, and Gateway, a workplace-based programme for students who have already identified their chosen career.
