By Ewen McRae
Some of Brimbank’s youngest residents started thinking about their future careers last month, with a ‘speed careers’ day at Sunshine Primary School.
More than 60 grade 6 pupils from Sunshine, Ardeer, Mother Of God and Dinjerra primary schools took part in the day, which was organised by the Ardoch Youth Foundation and designed to give students a taste of a wide variety of careers.
Pupils split into small groups and spent 10 minutes with each presenter to hear about their job, ask questions, and get a feel for whether they would like to pursue that as a career path.
Ardoch education partnerships co-ordinator Nick Gabb said the day was a resounding success.
“Our programs are all built around having creative activities around which kids can learn, and from that perspective it was a huge success,” Mr Gabb said.
“The feedback has been really good from all the kids and the teachers. All the presenters were really informative, and it really goes towards what we’re trying to do with realising children’s potential through education.”
Presenters included police, librarians, cartoonists, engineers, farmers, lawyers and a local journalist.
Ardoch runs similar programs in secondary schools across the western suburbs, and hopes to expand into more primary schools in the future.
“It’s about getting young people thinking about what jobs and careers are,” Mr Gabb said.
“We want to support young people earlier and help support their development. Events like this are a bit different but very important for all the children that took part.”
