Trade Schools for the Future benefit many students. The idea is that while they’re finishing their SACE they’re also commencing a career of their choice. Well I’m 15 and I go to Reynella East High School I spend three days at Zimmer Engineering and two days at school Luke is doing a Certificate II in Engineering and that’s the entrance level for any kind of engineering that a young person wants to go into. With the traineeship we was concerned that that was it, he was going to leave school but the fact that he is able to still stay at school and still finish year 12.
Which also gives him other options as well. The way they’ve structured it now is fantastic. He actually enjoys going to work, learning new things and experiencing new tasks. The other day he came home and told us that he’d finished his shift and then he went out with one of the blokes because he wanted to see what happened to the product, so he’s really keen. Probably the most interesting thing I’ve learned at work would be working on the mill a little bit, it’s just like interesting what you can do with just a single piece of metal. Trade Schools are clusters of schools that work together. There are ten Trade Schools for the Future in South Australia and each Trade School has two Apprenticeship Brokers that work with them. Any young person who’s doing at least one SACE point is eligible for a schoolbased traineeship. Generally how the process works is that the young person makes an appointment with the Apprenticeship Broker talks about what their career objectives are, where they are in their pathway. If the young person is work ready then it’s the Apprenticeship Broker’s job to go out and approach. The employer or approach industry. Yeah it was very good, they are very informative, they come down and step by step go through it with you, and yeah it’s quite smooth and it doesn’t take up too much of your time. It’s very hard to find tradesmen out there to employ where, doing it this way, you’re securing a tradesman for the future. Traineeships offered in all areas, so from the more traditional trades in construction, in mechanics, in electrical and plumbing but also in things that are more nontraditional, so you might have a traineeship or an apprenticeship in.
Hospitality, in business administration, in aged care or in child care. I think the program is an awesome program, I wish it was around when I was at school just gives young people so many more opportunities and the young people that do it are much more committed at school, much more committed to their workplace. Sensational. Sort of made me want to finish school I’ll follow on with the engineering and afterwards hopefully I could get an apprenticeship. He’s gained responsibility, he’s gained knowledge of getting up early, things that go along with the working life as well as school life.