This is a year for the history books, and the impact of COVID-19 is felt by the tens of thousands of Frankston and Peninsula senior secondary students looking to secure their ATAR in 2020 – with their stress often spilling over on to parents, siblings and friends.
Alison Wall, pictured, the liaison manager for START Trade Training Centre at Chisholm’s Frankston campus, has three key pieces of advice for students and parents navigating their choices for 2021.
1. If you have to go on campus, feel confident in doing so. Chisholm has undertaken a range of preventative measures to ensure the safety of students, from adapting classroom layouts to accommodate social distancing to providing sanitiser stations and sneeze guards.
2. Although career expos, open nights and VET experience days aren’t being offered this year, Chisholm has recorded information sessions around VET delivered to secondary students that can be viewed on Chisholm’s website www.chisholm.edu.au. Other sources of valuable information for pathway opportunities are available at www.fmpllen.com.au/resources; www.sellen.org.au/vetis/; and www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/studentguides/getvet/Pages/Index.aspx
3. “Remember, you are not the only student trying to make subject selections and pathway decisions in these crazy times,” Alison says. “Webinars, websites and course guides are just a drop in the ocean in the myriad of information needed for students to make subject choices and should be used for what they are – a starting point. Make sure you use the resources available to you to fully investigate your choices – your schools, VET co-ordinators, and careers practitioners – and strive to do your best.”
Finally, myth vs fact. Myth: there are fewer job opportunities for VET graduates. Fact: more than half of all new jobs projected to be created by 2022 will be achievable with a VET qualification.
Source: Labour Market Information Portal 2017
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