By Ethan Benedicto
The Berwick Leisure Centre was filled to the brim with students from just down the road, with Berwick College holding their annual careers expo on Tuesday 14 May.
An all-day event, the expo was aimed at showing the students different possible pathways they could take after or even during their high school studies.
Senior school assistant principal Andrew Barker said that giving the students a “broad spectrum Is really good, and we say success is about making sure we cover off all pathways”.
“With the senior school reforms that have come out in the last couple of years, there’s a change to how we present senior school, and the new certificates are really important,” Mr Barker said.
The changes began with the Firth Review in 2019, where a move to ensure that all secondary Victorian students were able to access high-quality vocational and applied learning options, as well as an improvement of ways for these students to transition from school to post-secondary education and work.
This saw VCE and VCAL merge into one category, instead creating a VCE Vocational Major – replacing VCAL – and the creation of a Victorian Pathways Certificate (VPC) for students who are not ready or unable to complete the certificate at VCE level.
“There’s a change to how we present senior school, and the new certificates are really important; you’ve got young people coming through to an ever-changing world.
“I mean we’re a big school, so we want people to be everything from tradespeople through to doctors and nurses, and having a careers expo where we have that kind of breadth gives them the exposure that they can do everything,” Mr Barker said.
Running from the early morning to after lunch, the expo had exhibitors from a wide range of institutions, such as Federation University, Melbourne University, emergency services, Headstart, RMIT University, Chisholm and many more.
Students were encouraged to ask questions related to employment, possible opportunities after school, courses on offer, general life on university campuses and so on.
School captain Tarran Frost said that their role is “important in representing the school”.
“It’s kind of an expectation that we go forward and seek further education, and I think it’s important from a school captain’s standpoint that we encourage our peers to look for that.
“We want our friends to find a path that they’re going to be educated in, whether that’s an apprenticeship or a university or TAFE,” she said.
Shaya Hennessy also added that the careers expo is key to their futures, that “even if you don’t know what to do, it’s important to know what is out there”.
“As a school captain, it’s good to be a role model, for example, I myself don’t’ really know what to do yet but for me to show up here and take interest in my future is encouraging others who don’t know,” she said.
Regan Gay shared the same view, noting the significance of their options in the “coming years”.
“Since we’re the representative of our peers, I think it’s important that we learn it rather than teachers telling us what is to come because we’re more related to the cohort,” she said.
The expo stalls had a wide range of freebies for the students, which went from pens and tote bags, to handbooks about future pathways and pins for commemoration.
Exposure is a big thing for Mr Barker and with all the factors surrounding suburban schools, he said that “it’s often that kids haven’t seen outside their [area], so it’s nice to show them that hey, this is what’s down the road, this is what’s at uni”.
“Student leadership is really important, especially in all schools and [one] this size, we need to hear their voice, we need to know what they want and where it’s at, and sometimes getting that is really hard because you’ve got such a big student body.
“But having the right leadership group in there helps to funnel those conversations through so we actually get a nice, synthesised voice from the kids about what they want and where they want to go,” he said.
