Feature
Kick start your career Kelly Southworth Editor
Kitty Year 11 VET Plumbing
When I was thinking about what subjects to do in VCE, I already realised that I wasn’t really enjoying the ones that included a lot of writing or academic work. Then I did the careers test at school last year, and the results showed that I was really good at mechanical stuff, so I started looking at trades and I thought mechanical plumbing sounded really fun. I also practically grew up in a construction site, because we were having renovations going all the time. That gave me an idea of something that I might want to go into, because I already had a sense of what goes on. And my mum was really involved in the work even though she‘s not a labourer, so I‘ve always grown up with the female influence in that maledominated work. But it was still very confronting at first, being the only girl in my VET Plumbing class. I‘m still getting used to it but I‘ve got friends and I‘ve got people to talk to, so it has got better. At the start of the course, we were in the classroom learning about
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Vocational Education and Training, better known as VET, is an exciting pathway available to students who opt to do VCE in Senior School. Through VET, students can choose from a huge array of fascinating and practical courses that prepare them for potential careers. We spoke to four Carey students who have taken an interesting or unexpected pathway in VET.
safety because, obviously, that‘s a huge part of any trade. And then, recently, we‘ve actually been able to go out in the workshop and work on sheet metal. It’s just been the basics, like learning how to use some really basic hand tools. But I definitely think I learn better hands-on, so it’s been really good. I really enjoy having such a massive change of scene to what we have at Carey. The equipment we have and the space we have is so awesome to be able to use. Especially compared to a classroom setting where I‘m inside and sitting all day, every Wednesday afternoon at VET is just such a nice change. There‘s a huge variety of courses that you can do as a VET subject, and they all combine the practical learning and the classroom learning that you get with school. It‘s a really good way to figure out if you want to follow that pathway after school, and if you do, you can go straight into an apprenticeship. If I stay in the plumbing pathway, I‘ll go into mechanical plumbing, which is HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) and that sort of thing. But if I don‘t go into plumbing, I‘ll definitely still go into an apprenticeship or another TAFE course.
