Should You Drop a VCE Subject?
Course and Career Chat
What we’re talking about: It’s nearly the end of Term 2, and I’ve had a lot of conversations with students lately where they’ve been trying to decide whether or not to drop a VCE subject that they’re studying. To make an informed decision, there’s a few things you need to consider - do you know what you want to do when you finish school? Is this subject a prerequisite for that course? Can you support yourself to feel more confident in the subject with some extra help? Could you look at similar courses that don’t need it as a prerequisite? Is not liking the subject a clue that...
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How to Feel Confident About VCE and Choosing Tertiary Courses Part 3 [What Are You Really Good At?]
Course and Career Chat
What we’re talking about: In this third part of my mini series “How to Feel Confident About VCE and Choosing Tertiary Courses” I’m diving into another question that I’d love for you to consider - What are you good at? I don’t mean what subject you’re good at (although I did talk about that in episode 102), but instead what is something that comes naturally to you that you use in your everyday life that could be applied to any career you choose? Knowing this can help you see how you can bring key parts of yourself to any role you choose to take in the future. Links mentioned: Work...
info_outline![How to Feel Confident About VCE and Choosing Tertiary Courses Part 2 [What's Your Favourite Subject and What Do You Like About It?] show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/item/36531590?height=50&width=50)
How to Feel Confident About VCE and Choosing Tertiary Courses Part 2 [What's Your Favourite Subject and What Do You Like About It?]
Course and Career Chat
What we’re talking about: In this episode, I continue the mini-series on feeling confident about VCE and choosing tertiary courses. Instead of jumping straight to career titles, I encourage you to reflect on your favourite subjects and, more importantly, what you enjoy about them. This approach can provide valuable insights into courses and careers that will allow you to do more of what you actually like. 0:45 – Recap of Episode 100 and the importance of understanding VCE In the last episode I shared some episodes where I explain key aspects of VCE so that you can really understand the...
info_outline![How to Feel Confident About VCE and Choosing Tertiary Courses Part 1 [Understanding How VCE Works] show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/item/36453390?height=50&width=50)
How to Feel Confident About VCE and Choosing Tertiary Courses Part 1 [Understanding How VCE Works]
Course and Career Chat
What we’re talking about: Thanks for joining me for the 100th episode of Course and Career Chat! This episode is Part 1 in a series I’m calling How to Feel Confident About VCE and Choosing Tertiary Courses, and in this episode I want you to think about what is stressing you out about VCE so that you can get your questions answered. I’ve created a list of past episodes of Course and Career Chat where you can find the answers to common questions I get when I’m working with my students and their parents, and if I haven’t answered your question yet, please send me a DM on Instagram to...
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How Will AI Affect Your Career Choices?
Course and Career Chat
What we’re talking about: AI is everywhere at the moment, and there’s a lot of discussion about how it will change jobs and career pathways. Many students (and parents) are wondering—will AI replace certain jobs? Will the careers that seem like a great option now still be relevant in 5 or 10 years? In this episode, I break down what AI actually is, the ways it’s already affecting different industries, and how students can make career choices that will set them up for success in an AI-driven world. 2:40 – What is AI, and why is it such a big deal? AI is already part of our daily...
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Should You Take a Gap Year After Year 12?
Course and Career Chat
What we’re talking about: Should you take a gap year after Year 12? It’s a big decision, and in this episode, I break down the benefits and drawbacks of taking a year off before further study. I also share practical advice on how to keep your options open, even if you're unsure about your next steps. 1:09 Common concerns about taking a gap year I’ve had a lot of conversations with parents recently about whether a gap year is the right choice for their child. Many students don’t know whether they should still apply for courses through VTAC, or if taking a gap year will impact their...
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How To Motivate Yourself To Study in VCE
Course and Career Chat
What we’re talking about: 1:43 My observations around motivation as a Maths teacher I share my experience of teaching a particular class who were really focused, willing to learn, with high aspirations for their VCE results. Most people would assume that there’s not much a teacher of a class like that needs to do to in terms of motivation, but what I actually found was that in the second half of the year, these students were feeling really stressed and losing motivation despite the fact that they were doing everything “right” and still doing well on their SACs. I found that by helping...
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How Do SACs Work in VCE?
Course and Career Chat
What we’re talking about: Let’s talk about how SACs work in VCE so that you know what they are, how they’re used, and to bust some of the misconceptions around them that often come up throughout the year so that you can feel really confident as you move through VCE. 1:32 What is a SAC? Throughout your time at school from prep through to Year 12, you do different types of assessment. SAC stands for School Assessed Coursework and it’s called that because it is one of the assessment types that is used to calculate your study score for your VCE subjects, but it is written by your teachers...
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The Parents' Guide to VCE
Course and Career Chat
What we’re talking about: This episode is all about explaining how VCE works and translating the jargon around VCE so that you can understand it more clearly and feel more confident supporting your child. Grab the free download The Parents’ Guide to VCE to have on hand (), and listen up as I clarify what the key organisations like VCAA and VTAC do, what all the acronyms mean, and tell you what you need to focus on and what you can ignore as white noise. 5:22 What does VCAA stand for and what do they do? The VCAA is the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. They set the curriculum...
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For Parents: How To Help Your Child Succeed in VCE
Course and Career Chat
What we’re talking about: After working with parents first as a teacher and now as a career counsellor, and now being a parent myself, I know how hard it can be to navigate that line between allowing your child to have their independence and also wanting to support them as best you can. In this episode I share how you can best support your child through the decision making process around VCE subject selection, tertiary course exploration and applying through VTAC. 2:01 Where is the responsibility? Knowing where your responsibility for your child’s studies ends and theirs begins is a bit of...
info_outlineWhat we’re talking about:
An Instagram post from @biglifejournal prompted this episode. The story they shared about how parents supported a child in her dream of becoming a mermaid, in the process helping her learn fantastic life skills including how to reach her goals, made me think about how we are likely to dismiss teens when they come to us with ideas about their future career.
1:23 The post that inspired this episode
Check out the link below to see the post that I’m referencing here. It involves the story of a child who says she wants to be a mermaid, and parents who respond by encouraging her to learn to swim and sing as these are things that mermaids are good at. They teach her how to set goals and work towards her dreams, which are life skills that will set her up the future, no matter what she decides to do.
4:00 How this relates to teenagers
I think adults can be quite dismissive of teenagers’ career goals and plans for the future when they don’t think it’s the “right choice”, and not only is this not helpful, but it’s a missed opportunity to be more curious about why they chose that career to begin with. I share a story about being dismissed as a teen and how unhelpful it was in my career journey.
6:50 How we can be more curious with students
It makes sense that students might latch onto a career they’ve heard of from somewhere, because they’ve been focussed on studying all year and all of a sudden need to make some sort of choice about their next step. What we can do as adults is be curious to find out why they have chosen a particular career, and then use their responses to dig a bit deeper and maybe even discover other similar options where they can pursue their interests and lean into their talents and skills.
10:50 Why I like discussing courses more than careers
One thing I think makes more sense, particularly with teenagers, is to focus on the next step rather than the final career goal. This means that they can zone in on what they like to do, what interests they want to explore, and what skills they would like to develop, and it gives them more time to discover different careers and roles that they will be able to access with their qualification. With new jobs being created all the time, this also means they will be open to new careers that don’t exist yet but will be available to them once they finish their degree.
14:30 What this means for creative careers
I see most adults being dismissive of students who want to work in a creative field, because they’re worried about the job prospects. While this may be a valid concern, I think it’s important to start by being curious and looking deeper into the opportunities available. When students are allowed to explore, they can find out about the wider range of careers related to the one they initially thought of, and they can get a more accurate picture of what a career in this field looks like. With this information, they can make an informed decision for themselves,, rather than dismissing it because “people say there are no jobs in that”.
Links mentioned:
Work with me: https://www.roadmapeducation.com/services
The Instagram post from @biglifejournal that sparked this episode: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFki0WQu3wv/?hl=en&img_index=1
25 Ways to Explore Careers: https://www.roadmapeducation.com/explore