School and beyond

The closing date for the DEEWR scholarships for Career Advisers has been extended to 31 July.

The Industry Placement Scholarships provide $10,000 to enable a short-term industry placement to further successful applicants’ skills or knowledge of workplaces, industry sectors and/or
occupations. The Study Scholarships provide $5,000 for successful applicants to undertake post graduate study in the career education field in 2009.

Both types of scholarships are available to career advisers/practitioners at Australian schools, TAFEs and universities. For more information please visit the DEEWR website.

As part of the Australian Government’s Career Advice Australia initiative, Community Active Careers is the National Industry Careers Specialist for the Community Services and Health industries.

Community Active Careers is “committed to providing quality career education and helping all young Australians make a smooth transition through school and on to further study, training or work” and has a terrific e-newsletter that you can subscribe to.

Thanks for your email responses to the SkillsOne post from last week - it is an amazing resource, that last month won a global Webby Award for “Best Association Website 2008.” These awards were presented at a ceremony in New York last week.

SkillsOne is an initiative of The Institute for Trade Skills Excellence aimed at raising the profile and status of trades. SkillsOne TV airs nationally on Foxtel/Austar (Aurora Channel 183) each week in a block of programs presented as a branded channel as well as the website featuring videos, rich content and resources. It is a terrific, very professional resource for students, their families and schools.

With the skills shortage being a major issue for Australia, most agree on the importance of highlighting the benefits and opportunities of doing a trade to young people – many of whom have been raised to believe that University is the only option. SkillsOne shows that trade skills today present new and different career options and many traditional industries are now highly technologised, innovative and exciting.

SkillsOne tells real stories about real people who are passionate about what they do, the exciting career opportunities available across many industries and the skills in high-demand in the 21st century. I especially love the video about music students at Nirimba TAFE (Nirimba TAFE is close to our hearts as the Lighthouse office was based there for many years.)

A website aimed at NSW students and their parents, teachers and employers has been launched by the NSW Teachers Federation. It is called Students @ Work and is full of information about work/study balance, how many hours at work is optimum (especially in the senior years) and a host of links to other work-related services for students.

It also contains recent (2007) local research reports on full time students who also work part time. Interesting reading!

If you are just starting out in exploring the online world and how it relates to education, Judy O’Connell set out some simple explanations on an easy-to-navigate website last year (in support of in-school workshops she was delivering.) Visit this site, and start with just one topic – it will amaze you how easy some of the tools are to use today, both for your own work outside the classroom, and to support student learning.

One of my favourite tools is del.icio.us. You can use it as you do your “favourites” in Internet Explorer, but the advantages are you can access them from any computer, and you can share them too – with colleagues, students and across schools. My del.icio.us account is here – you can see what my interests are – VET, mentoring, careers, special education and early childhood topics. You can follow my bookmarks, or others too. It’s a great tool!

Other teachers are blogging in the Diocese. Catherine McAuley’s IT team has commenced another round of professional learning for teachers in 2008 – click on their name above and see what they are up to. Holy Family are also sharing some really useful approaches and resources on their blogs (including class blogs) – its great reading!

The Youth Participation Grants Program gives young people the power and resources to develop and implement community activities in their local area.

A selection panel will award grants to young people who can demonstrate that:

* their project benefits the community in some way
* the idea for the project has come from young people
* the application has been created by young people
* their project will increase community interaction.

Young people aged between 12 and 25 years, and living in NSW can apply for a youth participation grant of up to $5500. The next round closes on 24 April and the following round is closing on 25th July. For more details and guidelines visit the website.

ROLLERMACHE – NEW SITE

In response to the growing amount of films being produced in classrooms, the ABC has created a safe online video gallery where students across the country can upload, watch and rate each others creations.

The ABC’s Rollermache website inspires and teaches 8 to 15 year olds to create their own works and upload them. They also administer a pre-moderated gallery where kids can present their work safely.

As well as providing “how to” instructions on animation, story development and ideas for coming up with characters, the site also shows “behind the scenes” tips and tricks on media-making from some of the world’s best filmmakers. Have fun exploring the videos and potentially adding some from your school!

A range of great online safety resources for students can be found at SafeWork SA. These tests and activities target different age groups and cover a range of industries (including hospitality, office environments, retail, supermarkets) as well as generic activities, and many provide a certificate on completion.

We have used the Hunt the Hazards activity – a highly visual, interactive approach to hazards across many workplaces. Hunt the Hazards is suitable for students in Year 8 and 9, but all the activities would be a terrific addition to any work-placement preparation, allowing students to consolidate their learning.

National Youth Week is Australia’s largest celebration of young people, and in 2008 it takes place from 5-13 April.

Thousands of young people aged 12-25 years all across Australia get involved in NYW each year, and it aims to encourage young people to:

* share ideas (in so many ways, see this information page for 20 top ideas in NSW)
* attend live events (the schedule will start to go up in February on this Youth Week events page soon)
* have their voices heard on issues of concern to them (participate in online polls)
* showcase their talents (five national talent competitions are scheduled, including RockIT, WriteIT, ShootIT, DesignIT and SnapIT)
* celebrate their contribution to the community (see what’s going on in NSW, where it is Youth Week’s 20th anniversary)
* take part in competitions (win free stuff by answering a simple question)
* have fun!

Pass this information on to your SRCs and other key contacts to ensure your school communities are participating in this event, in the final week of term one.