It has been a busy start to Term 2 with many of our wahine toa out on short taster courses, industry open days, university open days and visits as well as Gateway placements.

Gateway:

We have had 25 students sign up to a Gateway placement in a variety of vocational areas such as The Warehouse Red Shirts programme, Countdown Seeds in store programme, BCITO Construction, Primary ITO Farm experience and the Waitomo Cultural Tourism noho. We are aiming to build these numbers for 2023 as they are vital in enabling our rangatahi to make informed career and pathway plans for their future.

https://www.careers.govt.nz/courses/secondary-school-study-and-training-options/start-tertiary-or-workplace-training-while-at-school/

Future Pathways:

We have eleven Year 12 wahine toa enrolled at Toi Ohomai and Youbee College on the secondary tertiary pathway courses under the Future Academy umbrella. These students are at course one day a week studying a range of programmes including Animation, Automotive, Agriculture, Construction, Hair and Beauty and IT. Most of these courses offer 20 - 23 Level 2 industry related credits. We have an exciting number of Level 1 students looking at this pathway from the Level 1 taster courses they are currently studying for 10 weeks. If you or your young person would like more information about these courses please come to course selection evening on 11 August or make an appointment with Liz Coster via career central interview request.

Industry Open Days:

Gib Wallboards and Higgins Contracting have been actively promoting career and job opportunities within the expansive construction industry. We had a site visit with a number of key speakers who highlighted the employability skills they are seeking and the many opportunities for further study, on the job training and promotion within the infrastructure sector. All speakers discussed the importance of hiring and supporting wahine toa in these industries.

In the next newsletter we will be able to report on our MITO Automotive Careers Open Day trip as well as our Building Tauranga from the ground up event which are all being held later this month.

BECA Engineering Day was held on 25 May and was attended by eight students from Levels 1 -3. These students responded to the invitation and this year it saw the inclusion of students from Computer Science classes. Erina Islam said that “ it was super cool to learn about different types of specialised engineers, namely the fire engineer. Learning about the whole design process and its relevant implications (the Baylink) was a great learning opportunity. It also made me feel much more appreciative of our local engineers “.

University:

The Mansfield House Dean took a group over to the Waikato University Open Day at the Hamilton Campus. The akonga who went reported that it was a valuable experience to be on campus , see the accommodation and attend mini lectures. The Tauranga campus open day is on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 June so I encourage you to attend with your young person should they be interested in knowing more about Waikato University. Find out more or register at www.waikato.ac.nz/go/openday

Victoria University held a psychology specific session with the Level 3 class who were able to ask questions relating the complexity of pathways available when considering studying psychology at tertiary level.

As always we are keen to connect with businesses that would be interested in offering work shadowing, work experience or even a workplace visit as we seek to broaden our students' knowledge on the huge range of careers open to them. Please contact Liz Coster on lcoster@tgc.school.nz