Grafton High School’s ‘life-changing’ work program grows tenfold in four years
A growing focus on school-based apprenticeships is transforming pathways for students at a northern NSW public school, giving them a head start in careers ranging from beekeeping and aged care to real estate and decorating.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A North Coast public school’s growing focus on school-based apprentices and trainees has been described as “life-changing” and credited with transforming students’ career paths by allowing them to earn while they learn.
Grafton High School’s Educational Pathways Program allows students to gain hands-on experience while still at school, working in areas such as aged care and hospitality and gaining trade certificates.
Year 10 student Jorja Willis is working in an aged care facility, while gaining a certificate in individual support, and is loving it.
“After the first day, I came out with the biggest smile on my face,” she said.
She said her experience had been “life-changing”.
“I didn’t want to go to uni and had no idea what I was going to do, but I do now and I just love it,” she said.
Grafton High School principal Scott Dinham said the school now had 20 students in the program, working in areas including beekeeping, real estate, painting and decorating and sports coaching.
The program has grown tenfold in just four years, with 10 per cent of the school’s senior cohort now doing an apprenticeship or traineeship.
“Our school culture is a really positive one of supporting each other to strive for whatever it is that you are working towards,” Mr Dinham, the program’s “principal champion”, said.
He credits the increase in school-based apprenticeships and traineeships for switching up the energy of the school overall, including in exam results.
“That success is about a culture in a year group, in any given year group,” he said.
“If you’ve got structures in place where any student in the year group can see something for them at school, that contributes to the success.
“More students can see that there’s something for them at school.
“There’s not that comment that school isn’t for me anymore.”
Mr Dinham encouraged others schools to support their work-ready students by embracing the opportunities the program offered.
“Take the risk and say yes at every corner,” he said.
“The barriers will always exist, but we’ve just been of the attitude that we will say yes to every opportunity and try and figure out how to get around those barriers later on.”
Got a news tip? Email: toni.moon@news.com.au
More Coverage
Originally published as Grafton High School’s ‘life-changing’ work program grows tenfold in four years
Tributes flow for ’gifted’ young sportsman
A beloved Central Coast teen who excelled in a number of sports has been remembered as a “fierce competitor and loyal teammate” in the wake of his shock death. Read the tributes.
‘Parents need certainty’: School kids risk crossfire in rail dispute
Wednesday’s train chaos has already sparked fears schoolchildren could soon be caught in the crossfire in the war between the rail union and state government, as a new deadline looms to resolve the dispute.