After the continued disruption to planned events in 2021 due to Covid-19, the Careers Department started 2022 by hitting the ground running.

Our Year 13's began to have their one on one interviews with me, tertiary providers began to visit and give their talks, Gateway placements began with masks in place and short courses were signed up to. Our students were excited about the opportunities that were presented to them and began to take the necessary steps to plan for their futures. 

However, during week five of the Term 1, staff absence due to sickness and isolation requirements meant Avonside had to begin rostering year groups home with many students themselves having to stay at home due to Covid related issues. We were still able to offer students the chance to either participate in tertiary presentations and careers interviews in school or online and this has been fantastic. 

As the year progressed things became more settled at Avonside and we were able to organise our annual Avonside Careers Expo, which had been such a success in August 2020 but had to be cancelled last year due to the lockdown. This year it was held on August 17th so that it would support students’ course selection choices. 

We divided the day up into a senior year group per hour and, with fifteen tertiary institutions and all our subject areas present, students were able to see our visitors and their own teachers for advice about next steps, courses and options for life beyond school. I was delighted to see how engaged and enthusiastic our students were and their feedback about the event was overwhelmingly positive. One staff member even emailed me to let me know that, “ one student went into that event thinking she had no urge or reason to study and then left the event feeling inspired. She is now starting her application to train as a teacher at UC, which she said she had never ever considered until our careers day”. What a wonderful result and so affirming. I know that we need to continue to offer and develop our own in-house events in the future as they really do provide the best outcomes for our students. 

This year it has been especially important to give our students opportunities to explore study options outside of Christchurch and Canterbury, as we now have the chance to move around the country more than we did in 2021. Trips to other areas in New Zealand have included the “Experience Waikato” University visit, the “Creative Arts Day” at Massey University, Wellington campus and the Victoria University of Wellington Open Day. These trips gave students the opportunity to see what courses these institutions offer, what their halls of residence are like and see what life is like in a different part of Aotearoa. 

Students in Year 9 and 10 have also been given opportunities to try out new things by enrolling them onto Ara Institute/Te Pukenga taster days. These “Experience Ara” courses are held throughout the school year and most are free. Depending on the activity, students might meet tutors and current students, use industry-standard facilities to undertake tasks and challenges, or just have a great time learning about a subject they’re really interested in. In 2022, we have had a large number of junior students sign up for and attend a range of different courses and hopefully this will guide their future course and career planning. 

Following on from the successful NCEA tutoring offered here by Youthtown last year, we are so grateful to have had the team and their University of Canterbury tutors here every Monday from 3pm until 4.30pm. They offer free tutoring support for all NCEA levels and subjects to our students and these sessions have been very well attended and very well received. The team give up their time so willingly and our students have benefited hugely from this invaluable opportunity. I hope that we can continue to offer this in 2023. 

We have also continued to work alongside the fabulous Marg Foster and her Motivationz team. They offer high quality mentoring programmes for rangatahi to help shape youth pathways. This year the Motivationz team have worked with twelve of our students and have helped guide and inspire these akonga very successfully.

The growing job vacancy market due to Covid-19 has led us to work very closely with Atama Moore from Connected, a branch of the Ministry of Social Development. Atama has been integral in helping some of our students into work by offering job fair opportunities and work broker support to assist them in gaining employment. He regularly updates us about new positions, apprenticeships and opportunities available so our students always have the very latest information. We have been able to use the digital platform “Careerwise” to advertise these positions and other news and events that we want our students, families and whanau to know about. “Careerwise” is a great new tool for us to disseminate information and we love sending out weekly newsletters to our whole school community.

As a department the careers team are now looking forward to, and planning for, next year. We have begun to grow our dual enrolment options for 2023, with a good number of students hoping to do courses both at Avonside and offsite at a tertiary institution. We are also aiming to develop the work readiness of our junior students by strengthening our school and industry/employer connections and providing opportunities for them to go into workplace settings. This will give our students greater insight into the types of jobs that are on offer and also focus on the soft skills that employers need our rangatahi to have when they leave school. With covid restrictions being removed exciting times are ahead for our young people and for us all as a school. The careers department is ready for the new challenges we will now face as we look forward to a more settled future.

Natalie Guinness, Head of Careers