It has been a very busy month in Careers. We have had students go to Experience Ara Courses in: Flight Engineering, Engineer for a Day, Outdoor Education & Sustainability, The Art of Hospitality – Restaurant and Cookery, Hairdressing, Beauty Therapy, Medical Imaging, Art & Design for a Day, and Introduction to Nursing.

This is a very good opportunity for our students to experience areas of study that they think could interest them. They also got to see what it is like to study at a tertiary provider.

We have had a group of Year 12 and 13 students visit Otago University Christchurch Campus on Thursday 20 June to find out about careers in the Health Sector. This was a very informative and highly hands on experience. They got to hear from young professionals about how they ended up in their career from the start of their degrees. Our students were exposed to lots of different careers within the health sector.

On Tuesday 18 June we had the Maori Development Inc come to school to run a programme for fifteen Year 11 and 12 students. This programme Te Kora was a 5 hour interactive learning experience which introduced our students to the business world. They had to come up with a business plan. They worked collaboratively in 3 groups to come up with an idea that affects the youth of Christchurch. This is the first time that we have been given the chance to run this programme and it was a fantastic opportunity for our students.

Wednesday 19 June saw Mrs McLaren and I take a group of 18 Pasifika students to the SpacPac Careers Expo at Ara. Students got to listen to some inspirational speakers and then to interact with the stall holders. Lots of fun was had by our students, including Mara who won a fantastic prize box full of goodies, and Lavisha who also won tickets to the Crusaders game.

University of Canterbury ran a workshop on scholarships at school for our Year 13 students who are looking at studying at University of Canterbury next year. The workshop was well attended by our students.

Gateway has had students out on work placements this month in the following sectors; early childhood, customer service, building, information technology, hairdressing, linesman, mechanic, nursing, and hotel tourism.

It has been a very busy few weeks in Careers. It is now time for your Year 13 students to be focussing on their transition from school to either tertiary study or employment at the end of the year. Students need to get their applications in early for their courses. Just a wee reminder that students applying for study will need either a birth certificate or passport as identification. If they haven’t got either, now would be a good time to apply for one. If students are applying for scholarships they need to be working on these over the school holidays. I am available to meet with caregivers so please don’t hesitate to phone me to make an appointment.

Mrs Climo