As part of the Year 9 Compass program students have been completing the unit titled Future Me. In this area students are exploring what is possible for their future pathway and encouraging them to recognise their strengths and interests as individuals. This will help to prepare them as they enter the subject and pathway selection process in Term 3.
On two Wednesdays, 1 and 15 June, groups of Year 9 students left the College to embark on an investigation of university and TAFE campuses. With their Compass teachers and McAuley Campus Learning Advisor Mr Neal Haining, McAuley Campus Director Mrs Gail Preston and Year 9 Level Leader Mr Sam Waters, they travelled to sites including Deakin, La Trobe, Swinburne, Melbourne, RMIT and ACU universities as well as Box Hill, Swinburne (Wantirna) and Melbourne Polytechnic TAFE institutes. Students were given presentations by institutes and tours of their campuses.
It is hoped that in seeing the size of campuses and the different manner in which these places operate they will gain a better understanding of what type of learning might match their learning style, interests and study requirements in the future. In talking to each other and their families about what they experienced, it is hoped that questions will be asked and discussions started, which is all part of the learning process.
Many thanks go to the institutes who hosted us, the staff who accompanied the students and the Year 9 cohort themselves who, despite some very cold and wet conditions, represented the College and themselves in a manner that made us proud.
There will be follow up sessions for parents regarding pathway selections in Term 3, but if you have any further questions, please feel free to contact the Careers department by phoning the College or send an email to careers@mlmc.vic.edu.au and one of the Careers staff will get back to you to discuss your query.
Here are some reflections of the excursion from Year 9 Silver students:
I really enjoyed going to the universities as it showed me what will be expected if I ever go there. One thing I found scary was the independence that we get when we go to the university as I have never really had that much independence before.
— Isabelle Noy
The university was good. I learnt a lot about the history of each university and what they teach. It was pretty scary how large the university was, but I will get used to it.
— Riley George
The excursion to RMIT University and Melbourne University was very interesting as I learned about all the different courses that are available. I really enjoyed learning about the differences in how universities are run. Although it was a bit overwhelming finding out about all the subjects you need to do to get into different courses.
— Casey Cameron
I really enjoyed going to the universities as we were able to see what options are open to us for our careers. I learnt that I have a bunch of different ways I can get to my career goal, which was really good. It was scary knowing that I am only a few years away from deciding what I want to do and to get into a particular course and I need to choose certain subjects in later years in high school.
— Sarah Ivanovic
I liked how the RMIT speaker told us about all the opportunities available to us and how you can change courses during your time at uni and they gave us a good description of what uni is like. The main thing I learned was that even if you don’t get into a course you want, you can switch to it later.
— Jamie Corish
