School Holiday Career Exploration

The school holidays are a time to rest and restore, but also provide an opportunity to experience and explore, particularly whilst the focus is not as intensively on academic and sporting pursuits as may be the case during the school term.

An important strategy in career exploration is experiencing the job you are interested in.  This can be undertaken in many ways:

• Work observation - spending a day or more with someone already in the job at their workplace
• Career interview – developing a list of questions and interviewing someone already in a job you are investigating
• Work experience – spending some time (a week if possible) in the job
• Investigating courses by visiting institutions and talking to providers about their courses. Many Universities and private colleges run campus tours over the holidays.
• Getting a casual job or volunteering in your job of interest
• Doing a course or workshop that relates to the type of work you want to do – there are many holiday workshops on offer from various institutions and often through the local council or libraries.

Careers websites offer an alternative way of exploring options. The sites below offer a variety of activities and links to information that can also be used for broad or in-depth career or course information.

Pacific Lutheran College Careers https://pacificlutherancareers.com/  - Explore occupations, study options, key dates for events, watch videos on a variety of career options or create a resume in the ‘Student Secure Area’ by registering an account or logging in.

My Future https://myfuture.edu.au/ register an account and log in to explore occupation and pathway options with labour market information. There are also videos on various jobs, interactive bulls-eye charts and career quizzes.

The Good Universities Guide https://www.gooduniversitiesguide.com.au/ - a comprehensive site for comparing courses across Australia.

My Skills https://www.myskills.gov.au/ exploring vocational education and training options and course providers, career stories, videos and the skills that are in demand in the labour market.

University of the Sunshine Coast Holiday Workshops

USC is offering a number of STEM-related vacation camps at the Sippy Downs campus during the upcoming school holidays.  The eDiscovery Vacation camps are for school students aged between 8-14 years.  For more information on dates and topics and to register visit www.usc.edu.au/eDiscovery 

Mrs Natasha Purcell, Careers Counsellor