Hello and welcome to our wonderful JPC students and families! This is the first Careers Newsletter of 2024 and we are looking forward to another great year exploring career and pathway options for JPC students. This newsletter will provide information about future study options, job opportunities, work experience, portfolio building and more! 

This is your JPC Careers Team for 2024:

• Ms Teena Zorzi - Leader of Learning and Wellbeing (Careers and Pathways)
• Mr Dominic Charter - Leader of VET (Vocational Education and Training)
• Ms Natasha Bramham - Careers and VET support officer

You can contact all of us at careers.jpc@cg.catholic.edu.au 

Career Mondays
We also have an evolving careers space in the ICF top and middle mezzanine area. Mr Charter and Ms Zorzi will be in those areas every Monday at recess and lunch for drop-in sessions. If you have a question about Careers, Pathways or VET, drop by!

JPC also has an amazing Careers website which is accessible to all students. Below are some of the key links, but feel free to explore the array of Careers information!

The Calendar of Events will show Careers information sessions, open days and more, for anywhere in the country. You can choose the state that you are interested on the top right-hand side.

We are so pleased to announce that this year we have over 60 senior students commited to completing their Vocational Education and Training (VET) Certificate II in Active Volunteering. This means students will do a minimum of 20 hours of volunteer work both within the school and with external organisations. Students are also required to demonstrate their competency in a range of skills which includes use of different technologies for routine workplace tasks. Verbal, non-verbal and written communication skills that are appropriate for a diverse range of people. Workplace Health and Safety will be explored and evaluated and students will have the option to attaining their certificate in providing basic emergency life support as part of this qualification.

Students will tend classes during their Flextime for direct instruction, advice, group support and skills assessment. Several students have initiated projects and disseminated the idea asking for support from other students. This type of collegiality we hope, will come to exemplify the spirit here at JPC.

We are hoping to commence activities in relation to the Orange Sky work with the homeless in the near future, Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion will be launched on Shrove Tuesday and there are a number of local fund raising and awareness raising activities for which our students may volunteer.

If you are interested in contacting us about any organisations with which you are associated and who are looking for volunteer support, please feel free to contact Kathryn.kinnane@cg.catholic.edu.au or phone Kathy Kinnane on 6163 4835.

In 2023, we established the inaugural JPC VET student of the Year. Our current Year 12 student, Sienna Gersentberg was the recipient of this award. Sienna completed her Certificate II in Active Volunteering, which many of our JPC Senior students are currently working towards. She shares her achievements below.

I initially got into active volunteering as a way to strengthen my university portfolio however, as I began giving up my time, I realised how vital volunteers really are to the wider community and the role they play in maintaining various organisations. As a part of the active volunteering program, you are required to complete 20 hours of volunteer work. I completed these hours working with my baseball club Rebels, running canteens, and helping organise junior and senior award presentations. This allowed me to connect with a community that I truly value and brought to my attention how hard everyday people work to support things they enjoy.

Active volunteering is a great way to further your connection with the people, causes and organisations you are passionate about. Not only this, but the qualification is highly appealing to universities and can aid your application as it showcases your ability to participate in the wider community and connect with others who hold similar interests. It can be the factor that influences a university’s choice, especially if you are interested in a highly competitive course. While I initially entered to course for academic reasons the work, I completed in the community provided a life lesson on giving back and being selfless. Even though I have received my certificate, I continue to volunteer in the community so that I can continue to give back.

A practical learning experience on Maria Island for year 11 and 12 students.

This predominately field-based unit consists of 5 days on picturesque Maria Island on the Tasmanian East Coast. The unit is open to 24 students and is designed to engage, challenge, excite and inspire you through a hands-on marine science program. It will encourage you to explore issues threatening biodiversity as well as the productivity of the marine system. Climate change, invasive species, pollution, debris and their associated social and economic impacts will be covered.

To help with the cost of getting to Tasmania, year 11 and 12 students currently living interstate will automatically go into the running to receive one of five fully funded packages. Please note, applications close at 11.59pm on Monday, 26 February. 

The Defence Work Experience Program provides young Australians with an interest in a Defence career, the opportunity to gain exposure to a range of job roles available within the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and Australian Public Service (APS).

There are some amazing upcoming opportunities are available for both secondary and tertiary students and participants must be 15 years of age or over at the time of the placement.

The ASD work experience program is for Year 11–12 students at the Australian Cyber Security Centre. The program focuses on students who are considering further studies in a STEM-related field.

The week-long program offers you an opportunity to extend your knowledge and skills through practical challenges. Scenarios could include:

• identifying security intrusions on a computer system
• learning how to identify email compromises
• learning to monitor network traffic to detect exploits
• learning how to conduct forensic examinations of hard drives
• learning about web application vulnerabilities
• learning modern encryption methods
• learning about different types of encryption and how they protect data
• using open-source software to recover keys and encrypt and decrypt data
• learning about geospatial analysis and how to use geospatial tools for imagery analysis
• engineering hardware and software solutions for security problems
• robotics programming using Arduinos
• construction of Arduino electrical circuits.

INTERESTED IN A CAREER IN THE PERFORMING ARTS? Work Experience at the Canberra Theatre Centre (CTC) is a crucial first step to understand the performing arts industry and how it operates.

Canberra Theatre Centre offers Year 10 & senior school students a chance to spend a week in Canberra’s largest professional theatres, learning, developing, observing and participating in various areas of operation.  Students will spend time working out of The Courtyard Studio with a small group of passionate theatre makers, while learning from industry professionals across all areas of theatre, including directing, stage management, lighting, sound, mechanics, performance, design and more. 

It’s not the most fun subject to talk about, but it’s an important one – tax. If you have a part-time or casual job, even while you’re still a student, chances are you’ll need to know about tax.

But what even is tax? Think of it this way. Tax is a small amount of money that gets taken off your pay. The government uses this money to provide important services and infrastructure, like roads, hospitals, and even schools – put simply, tax improves our quality of life.