School to Work

The School to Work program assists young people to make a more successful transition from school to work and/or further education and training within a rapidly changing world. It recognises that students need to actively manage their career planning and development throughout their lives to benefit from all the challenges and opportunities that will arise in their future. The program encourages teachers to support young people to develop enterprise and employment related skills through curriculum and vocational learning opportunities. Senior Pathways Unit provides support for the STW program through its website.

STW priorities are as follows:

1. Vocational Learning

Outcome: To establish "vocational learning" as an essential KLA outcome.

Vocational learning provides students with the opportunity to make connections between school and the world beyond it. Vocational learning is learning that addresses broad understandings of the world of work and develops in young people a range of knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes relevant to a wide range of work environments. The Senior Pathways Unit has produced the following support sites:

• Introduction to Vocational learning: describes the use of vocational learning as an engagement and retention strategy.
• Vocational Learning Across the curriculum: provides all teachers with ideas to make connections between learning at school and the wider world within each KLA.
• Employment related skills: describes a range of strategies designed to develop employment related skills in the classroom. Employment related skills are generic skills and  transferable to the ever-changing work environment

2. Pathways Planning

Outcome: To support schools in establishing a Pathways Planning process as an integral part of transition from school to work.

• The student pathways survey is an essential tool in beginning the pathways planning process. This is a web based survey available for all students to reflect on their confidence in goal setting and career & transition planning. Students receive a feedback report which reflects their current thinking and offers them ways to improve their capacity to self-manage their personal career pathway. Staff can access the surveys and the feedback report for individual students to gain an understanding of where they are at, to determine the best approach to providing further support. Further information can be found in the Student Pathways Survey handbook

• MyFuture is a career exploration service with thousands of resources to help young people plan their career journey. Resources can be used for class activities by all KLAs.

3. Support for Careers Teachers

Outcome: To support careers teachers by developing career programs which are consistent, shared and valued across the region.

Senior Pathways Unit provides support for careers advisers through the Professional support and development section. This site provides ongoing and comprehensive support for careers teachers and includes opportunities for new careers advisers, professional development opportunities as well as teaching and learning resources.

4. Improved Workplace Learning

Outcome: To develop high quality Workplace Learning programs(work experience)which are consistent, valued and shared across the region.

The Workplace learning section of the Senior Pathways site provides links to policy and procedure for work experience and work placement and includes work readiness resources.

5. Strengthened Career Focus in Primary Schools

Outcome: To introduce career related programs to teachers of Stage III

The Real Game Series is a suite of career exploration and life skills programs that are developmentally sequenced for students from Year 3 to Year 12. The programs relevant to stage III students include:

• The Play Real Game - for students aged 8 - 10
• The Make it Real Game - for students aged 10 - 12

Additional Support Documents

A complete "Employability Skills" package with student and teacher units on communication, attitude dress and grooming and resilience:

• Employability Skills - Teacher Resource
• Customer Service
• Spoken Communication
• Non-Verbal Communication
• Written Communication
• Attitude, Dress and Grooming
• Being Employed
• Resilience
• A range of resources that have been adapted for students with special needs including a student portfolio, modified ERS and sections of the student STW Logbooks.
• Additional resources to support the preparation of students for the workplace can be found on the work placement section of this site. They include activities about personal presentation, communication, what employers are looking for and a range of other relevant activities. 

A number of schools have student volunteering initiatives supporting:

• student engagement
• student leadership
• whole school planning
• accredited training and
• community partnerships

Further information can be found at:

• http://clic.det.nsw.edu.au/student_volunteering/index.htm
• https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/psv/home.html

information provided by RT0 90333 – who work closely with our VET classes.