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"School careers advice is stuck in the past" - Financial Review

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Joseph41:
Hey everybody. I found this a really, really interesting article, and would love to get some perspectives on it!


--- Quote ---Career advisers push students to get a good Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) because that was how they got from school to higher education decades ago...
--- End quote ---

--- Quote ---"At the moment, students meet the careers adviser in year 9 and again in year 12. It's a one-off experience. You might be lucky and get a bit of work experience. But basically you are isolated from the idea of work."
--- End quote ---

--- Quote ---"But the process hasn't changed in generations. Young people don't need to know 'I'm going to be a lawyer' or 'I'm going to be a waiter'. They need to know skills that they  can transfer."
--- End quote ---

Full article here:
https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/school-careers-advice-is-stuck-in-the-past-20190917-p52saq

Thoughts?

Bri MT:
I agree that there is too much of a focus on knowing what career you want but at my school everyone did meet the career advisors multiple times in year 12 & a fair few times before that as well.

This might be because I was a high achiever anyway,  but I wasn't pushed to try and get a high ATAR by the careers advisor - they were more focused on the rest of my VTAC application and making sure I had back up plans,  didn't miss scholarships etc.

DrDusk:

--- Quote from: Bri MT on September 19, 2019, 06:09:19 pm ---I agree that there is too much of a focus on knowing what career you want

--- End quote ---
It's year 12, if you still don't have an idea of what kind of career you want, how are you going to choose a degree? or choose a trade and what not.

I found it to be a good thing that they encourage you to work harder to get a high atar. I have a friend who dropped out to do a trade but now he can't get into uni because he didn't try for a high atar as he thought he would be happy with his job.

PhoenixxFire:

--- Quote from: DrDusk on September 19, 2019, 06:18:23 pm ---It's year 12, if you still don't have an idea of what kind of career you want, how are you going to choose a degree? or choose a trade and what not.

--- End quote ---
I picked a degree and still don’t know what career I want. Especially with more generalist degrees, there’s a lot of flexibility. Even with degrees that aren’t super flexible, there’s always transferring or doing a masters. Most people will have a general idea by that point ie science/history/law but that’s not the same as knowing what career they want. Eg. I could go into environmental science research/resource management/conservation/science communication/medicine/molecular biology/etc.

Aaron:
Definitely think careers ed could be significantly improved. What we have at my school at the moment is much better than what i've seen.

I know when I was in high school the advice I got (now I look back on it) was pretty crap - I'm glad I didn't listen and went with my gut.

They have a hard gig given the ask of year 12 students at a crucial time in their lives - with the stresses of VCE, the added pressure of being made to pick preferences for a course sucks.

I think  there definitely needs to be more emphasis earlier on in terms of elective choices as exploration of potential areas rather than just doing elective x y or z for the sake of it. Year 9 and 10 is a crucial time period for students for a number of reasons - electives mentioned along with work experience and careers counselling. More has to be put into these two year levels to at least get some interests flowing for each student - it might reduce the 'what the hell do I pick' thoughts.

I think university visits that groups of students from a school do as part of the careers program is crucial as well - apart from Open Days, there isn't much prior engagement with universities and what they have to offer. Sure, websites provide information but sometimes they're hard to navigate and sometimes face-to-face interaction, explanation and brochures give insights an online website can't provide.

Anyway, that's just from my experiences so far.

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