Mrs Sarah Johnson, St Peters Springfield Careers and Wellbeing Counsellor says, beginning in Semester one, Year 10 will focus on discovery and what’s beyond high school. “We talk about different industries, types of work experience and various future pathways. These pathways don’t necessarily come down to an ATAR score or an OP score.”

Part of career profiling is career testing which looks at many things including “personality, aptitude and interest area,” says Sarah. “This starts to uncover who they are and what skills they have. It blends who they are as a personality type with what kind of aptitudes they have to succeed in certain types of industries.”

Profiling and testing helps students discover different jobs and careers and also looks at job titles. “From there we delve into what each of those could look like. That’s how our Year 10 students start to make decisions for their Senior Education and Training (SET) planning at the end of Year 10,” explains Sarah. 

“It’s not about ‘I want to be a doctor or teacher’, which can be an outdated way of thinking about careers. It’s looking further than that. It’s about saying, ‘I want to look at the industries of science and technology’, or, ‘I want to see what’s out there in the way of inventing and being an entrepreneur!’,” explains Sarah. “Then we design a package for them in Year 11 and 12 that suits, not only what they’re thinking of doing because that’s important, but what they’re good at and who they are. What kind of personality they have and if it fits with what they’re really good at academically so they can have success in Year 11 and 12 and make informed decisions.”

Career profiling is a “powerful transformation to see” in Year 10 students “because it’s a validation,” says Sarah. “It’s realising: ‘this profile says who I am, what I like to work like, how I work in a team, how I work in a learning environment, what my natural skills are.’ They actually feel like someone’s heard them, like they’ve been seen.”

Sarah has been involved with career profiling for the past nine years, “our students always find something out about themselves that they can be proud of and that’s incredibly inspiring.”

Student perspectives: Amelia and Matias (Year 10 — 2020)

“The career evaluation helped me choose subjects for Year 11 and 12 and understand my strengths. I will focus on the subjects I need for nursing. I’ll do Chemistry, Maths, English and Biology. I love helping others, I try to help people every day —it brings joy to my life,” says Amelia. “Career assessment is important because it guides you and sets a path for you, this way you can set positive career goals.”

“My pathway is architecture and design which is what I wanted to do,” says Matias. “The career testing was like a confirmation that what I wanted to do suited me. Subjects I will be doing include Engineering, Design, Physics and Art. Testing acts as a guide and a pathway that leads you to where you really want to go.”