From the Careers Department

Making Her Mark Launch

Last week a group of our young women and myself attended the launch of Making her Mark, an initiative designed to encourage and support women to follow their passions and enter into careers which are often viewed as traditionally male dominated. We heard from a panel of trail blazing women from diverse careers such as Bailee Major from B.Claire Carpentry, Rapid Prototype Engineer Alex Schultz , and CEO of the Civil Construction Federation Rebecca Pickering about their amazing career journeys and how they have found support in working in male dominated industries. The main message from all of them is to “just go for it”, follow your passion and to not let statistics rule your career.

The Key Note Speaker was Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineer, Shena Howell, who is the Program Leader at Shoal Group, who specialise in Space Technology. Shena’s main message was that engineering is all about problem solving, following your curiosity, perseverance and “finding your crew”. I especially liked the way she dispelled the “nerd” myth, and that you don’t have to be “the smartest person in the room” just to be curious and a hard worker!

The girls also heard from other inspirational women such as well as Katrine Hildeyard MP and Theresa Janowski, founder and CEO of STEM Fast Track, who inspired us all with stories of amazing women who have trail blazed before us! Look here for Role Models in a variety of industries: https://makinghermark.com.au/explore/role-models/

We look forward to engaging and collaborating with more events with Making her Mark and I recommend all our students to register their interest with this organisation. https://makinghermark.com.au/

School Based Apprenticeships and Traineeships (SBATs) and part time employment.

Presently many organisations are endeavouring to place students on a School Based Apprenticeships and Traineeships (SBAT) in order to offset the costs of training them for their part time employment. This is a common occurrence, but one that needs a great deal of thought and consideration, and forms should not be signed until parents and students are aware of the circumstances and requirements. Often, the argument is that these qualifications can be used for SACE, even for the student’s ATAR.

Please be aware of the following issues:

1. Not all qualifications carry Stage 2 credits (For example, Certificate III in Retail has Stage 1 credits only). I will need to check the SACE VET Register to check for you.
2. There are ramifications for future VET training, as students may only access 2 lots of subsidised training packages whilst at school.
3. Complications may arise from having an ‘open’ training account whilst accessing future VET.
4. Furthermore, if they are already doing the Certificate III in Film and Media at the College there is no benefit to their SACE.

The following information was sent to VET coordinators from Catholic Education SA (CESA):

“…..many of the traineeship letters schools have reported receiving from HITsa mention that training subsidies are not accessed (ie. the training is self-funded through the employer/RTO arrangement, Fee for Service training within the traineeship/ apprenticeship). Even self-funded (Fee for Service) training associated with School Based Apprenticeships or Traineeships may impact on a students’ ability to access subsidised VET for School training by having an open school-based training account open.

All SBATs in South Australia require Form 1285 to be completed by each party prior to the school receiving a Training Contract for the SBAT. Schools need to discuss the purpose and implications of SBATs with students and families, to ensure that informed decisions regarding training can be made. “ (Louise Murphy -CESA)

Therefore, if your son / daughter is positive that they will not require access to future VET funding / subsidies and the qualification is one that may benefit them obtaining part time work whilst at school / university, and all parties are aware of the implication for future funding then there is no harm in signing an SBAT.

However, in saying that, many students do change their minds part way through Year 11, and decide they would like to participate in VET in Semester 2. Parents and students should be aware of all of the ramifications and implications prior to signing an SBAT. Feel free to contact me and we can discuss this together on l.mcdonald@ignatius.sa.edu.au

Lisa McDonald
Vocational Services Coordinator