Heidi Kraak
While the world may be her oyster and with endless pathways open to her, deciding on a career path has been no easy feat for Traralgon College student Taylah Murie.
However, the year 11 student said the decision-making process had been made decidedly easier through the school’s intensive career counselling program.
“I spent some time in Cambodia recently volunteering with underprivileged kids, so I’d love to do something like that, working with underprivileged kids overseas,” she said.
“But I’m also interested in studying medicine. So they’re very different.
“I was thinking I could combine them in some way.”
Ms Murie said the career counselling process had helped her to “narrow down” her future pathway.
“The process has really helped me to understand what to do to get into uni, to get the study scores and the ATAR I need to get into that,” she said.
“It is a bit intimidating deciding what the future will be now but we get lots of help and there are career counsellors at school which makes it easier to decide.”
Traralgon College principal David Mowbray said the aim of the intensive career counselling process at the school was to ensure students and their families were fully informed of the pathways available to them.
“It is quite an intense process trying to make sure all students and their families are aware of what paths are available to them and knowing what they need to do to get on the path that they want,” he said.
“Nowadays, there are so many options and so many pathways to get to the same destination or to different destinations.”
Mr Mowbray said year 9, 10 and 11 students participated in the career counselling process at the school and all students in those years would meet with a teacher to finalise their course choices for the following year at scheduled meetings held on Thursday night.
“Every study has a pathway they want to go down. We need to cater to them but their needs are so diverse which is why we do this. Our aim is that every parent and child walks away being informed of a path to their future,” he said.
Ms Murie’s father, Paul Murie, said an information night held at the school earlier in the year involving a “marketplace” of subjects had been helpful in understanding what subjects would help his daughter achieve her goals.
