Greater Whitsunday Alliance (GW3) are bringing a first of its kind, tailored curriculum to the region and rolling it out in classrooms to help students identify and prepare themselves for regional career opportunities.
The ‘For Greater Careers Education Program’ is a series of career modules aimed at helping high school teachers from year seven to ten support their students through the provision of regionally specific resources.
Greater Whitsunday Alliance (GW3) Chief Executive Officer Kylie Porter said GW3 worked with education consultants ‘Future Anything’ to engage teachers, industry representatives and young people to develop the program.
“[It is a] series of hands-on, career modules that are co-designed by the region, for use in classrooms across the Greater Whitsunday,” Ms Porter said.
“The first module developed is targeting year ten students, while development of modules for years seven, eight and nine is now underway.”
The program aims at building job readiness for high school students across the region and providing them with accurate information around the types of careers available in a large range of sectors including agriculture, aquaculture, mining, and even aerospace.
Future Anything Founder Ms Nicole Dyson said over 50 per cent of current jobs are being replaced or irrevocably changed due to globalisation and automation – making the program extremely timely.
“It’s never been more important to provide young people with a clear understanding of the ‘future of work’ and how to navigate a ‘future proofed’ pathway to industry,” Ms Dyson said.
“Current research indicates an average 12- year -old today will have seventeen different jobs over five different careers.”
The program is research backed by regional data and is broken down into four phases of learning.
The modules will enable students to understand the ‘future of work’ before they imagine real world pathway opportunities in region.
Students will map their future through to training and education opportunities, before making their career decision with a focus on action through work experience.
Ms Dyson believes the For Greater Careers Education Program will bring transformational change to the ‘careers education’ space in the Greater Whitsunday region.
“Quite simply, young people can’t be what they can’t see,” she said.
“This will, no doubt, see more young people getting employed faster - especially in their chosen fields, greater engagement of young people in industry in region - particularly in emerging fields, and a closing the skill gap between education and industry.”
