10-minute chats shaping young futures

250 Bass Coast College students may have gotten a glimpse into their futures on Friday, July 31, as local professionals shared their experience at the school’s annual Speed Career Conversations event.

The event is now in its fifth year and brought 37 mentors, who all volunteered their time, to Bass Coast College’s Senior Campus in Wonthaggi, representing industries including healthcare, emergency services, construction, local government, hospitality, veterinary care and more.

Bass Coast Shire Mayor Cr Brett Tessari was among those taking part, alongside representatives from Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria, Bayside Health, TS Constructions, SJD Homes, Bass Coast Shire Council and Inverloch Animal Doc, to name just a few.

The event was hosted by the South Gippsland Bass Coast Local Learning and Employment Network (SGBCLLEN) and forms part of the college’s Year 9 transition program, as the students prepare to join the senior campus next year.

Students met mentors in small groups of three to five students, spending 10 minutes hearing about each person’s career journey and asking questions, before rotating to the next conversation.

SGBCLLEN executive officer Sarah Lawless said the session encouraged students to begin considering how their interests and strengths could lead to either further study or employment.

“We hope that they see this as an opportunity to start reflecting on their strengths and their interests, and starting to see how that might translate into some sort of future pathway for them,” she said.

Ms Lawless said even casual jobs taken before students leave school can help to provide them with skills that will carry throughout their lives.

“It doesn’t mean that you’re always going to work for Maccas or at IGA, but you do learn a lot of really valuable skills through having some sort of job when you’re in school,” she said.

She said that year 9 is a great time to “plant the seed”, before conversations about subject selection, further study and potential employment begin to seep in during the students’ later high school years.

The event has become embedded in Bass Coast College’s transition program over the last few years, playing a big part in bringing its two Year 9 cohorts together before their move to the Senior Campus.

Bass Coast College Dudley Campus student engagement principal Guy Thomas said the aim was to expose students to a broad range of industries without pushing them towards one particular pathway.

“We want students to hear from a range of industries rather than pigeonhole themselves into a particular career path,” he said.

“They can understand what someone’s first job was, what subjects they might have studied at high school and things like that.”

Wonthaggi McDonald’s restaurant manager Daniel Scanlan was also present, and told students that their first job could provide an important bridge between school and the wider workforce.

He said early employment teaches young people important workplace behaviours that will serve them well in future endeavours, such as punctuality, presentation and communicating with customers.

“A lot of them are nervous about their first day of work,” he said.

Mr Scanlan encouraged students not to dismiss the importance of an entry-level job, even if it’s unrelated to their desired career.

“It’s all experience. It’s all something that is building and building,” he said.

“Even if it is just your first-time job at Maccas, making pizzas or at a fish and chip shop, it’s teaching a foundation that your future career could require.”