Launchpad to Life

Dio Careers Team At The Ready With Practical Advice

Dio Careers Development Director

Grace Birdsall steers her students around the academic calendar with the steadiness of a seasoned ship’s captain. Every term brings a different focus.

For Year 13 students, this means starting the process of applying to universities from April onwards, with the University of Auckland and AUT being the first in New Zealand to open their applications. Submissions for scholarships is a major focus from the end of Term 2, while applying for halls of residence (first-year student accommodation) starts in early August. University Open Days provide great opportunities for students to get a feel for which institution will suit them and these are spread throughout the year.

It’s not just final-year students who benefit from the practical advice offered by the Careers Department.

Throughout Term 2, Grace and her colleague Amanda Lee run Life Skills classes for Year 12 students, looking at the career decision-making process, including getting to know themselves, identifying opportunities, making decisions and planning steps to implement the decisions for life after the last class.

“More than 95% of our students have aspirations to go to university,” Grace says. “So, it’s important that we help them demystify the jargon and understand the process. They may require references from school for accommodation or scholarships, for instance, so we get them to note their achievements over the course of the year to help us write those references with some individuality and meaning.”

In the first week of Term 1, the careers team send all Year 13 students a timeline of key dates for what happens over the course of the year, while at the same time keeping all senior students and their families updated on relevant happenings with a weekly newsletter. All Year 13 students are required to make an appointment to see the team early on in Term 1 to start their planning for the next steps of life beyond Dio.

The Careers team encourages students to contact companies they have an interest in so they can weigh up various career options for themselves. One student who contacted engineering firm Beca about a possible work experience placement ended up not wanting to do her original first choice of engineering, but instead switched to architecture as a result of watching an architect at work there.

Making The Transition From School To Work

Last year, Grace’s team organised an inaugural expo of nearly 20 vocational tertiary providers to help raise awareness of the wide range of nonuniversity study options on offer for students once they leave school.

The expo will be held again in August this year and will feature providers including Whitecliffe School of Art, Media Design School, Techtorium (software and engineering), NZ School of Food & Wine, the NZ College of Chiropractic, and the NZ Maritime School.

“Vocational study has a strong focus on work-based experience and it’s the perfect way for some students to make the transition from school to work,” says Grace. “Although student preference at Dio is heavily slanted towards university as a tertiary choice, it would be remiss not to provide our students with a range of choices that go beyond university study – there are a lot of other options out there.”

SCHOOL’S OUT, NOW WHAT?

“The question of what to do when you leave school is a perennial source of worry for many students,” says Grace. “So often, students get the message that to get anywhere in life, they have

Grace Birdsall

to do well at school. What they don’t often get told is that performance at school is not necessarily an indicator of future success.

“Having a growth mindset and persevering to pursue a dream is far more important. With an open, positive attitude, everyone can find the right fit.”

For students who aren’t clear on a course of study after leaving school, the Careers team encourages them to follow a general pathway so they can adapt, picking up subjects that interest them along the way. Most students tend to stick with their original study choices though, with a recent leavers’ survey showing that a year after leaving school, most students were still studying what they had left school to do.

Grace says there’s no one particular course that students at Dio tend to follow, although the biggest single area of interest is a conjoint law and commerce degree. She’s noticed a drop-off of interest in studying medicine in recent years – many students don’t want the time commitment.

Over the last few years, Grace has seen a large upswing of interest in Canterbury University, and last year more than 40% of the Year 13 cohort applied for a place there. Overseas universities are again gaining in popularity, with nearly a quarter of last year’s leavers choosing to study overseas. Australia is the most popular offshore destination, followed by the US and the UK.

For many years, Dio students have been awarded sports scholarships to top US colleges, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, along with other prestigious universities in the US.

“We help those students interested in going overseas to navigate the international application process,” Grace says. “There are over 40 universities in Australia and more than 4,000 in the US – it can be overwhelming if you’re trying to do it on your own.”