Inside Port Augusta Technical College, where students live on-site and are loving it
Port Augusta Technical College, where students live on site, is keeping kids engaged and arming them for the workforce.
Disengaged students refusing to go to school are among teens recording perfect attendance at Port Augusta Technical College, where they learn skills linked directly to some of the state’s most in-demand jobs.
Education Minister Blair Boyer and I are treated to the authentic boarding experience at the college, open since August, and is the only public school accepting overnight students in the state.
Here more than 200 regional students from areas spanning the Yorke Peninsula to the far north of the state, have been exposed to industry programs in civil resource and infrastructure, cookery and tourism, health and social support and a variety of trades.
Students keep their enrolments at their original schools but will attend Port Augusta Technical College which caters for students from year 10, up to three weeks per term.
The part time study model allows students from a wider area to benefit from the college.
It is one of five new technical colleges, including the first one opened at Findon, being built at a cost of about $209m.
Civil resource and infrastructure lead, Matt Griffiths, tells me some students have “30 to 40 per cent attendance at their home school” but don’t miss a day at the technical college.
“It’s just a different learning environment with those kids … they all had their challenges in other areas but they enjoyed their time here,” Mr Griffiths says.
Technical college lead Katina Athanasos says the school fast tracks students “into that guaranteed career whether that be a school-based apprenticeship, traineeship or higher education”.
The school is partnered with businesses including BHP, SA Power Networks and local health networks, which arm the teens with the knowledge to break into their desired industries.
Rylan, 15, a local student from Port Augusta Secondary School, shows me the tools in the workshop, which caters for career pathways including as a boilermaker and electrician.
One of the overnight students, Mirra, is spending a week on campus while she’s studying health and social support.
The 16-year-old, who is enrolled at Gladstone High School and wants to be a paramedic, believes she has a “leg up” on other students as she’s already learning about hospital equipment and how to make connections with patients.
Mirra’s clearly laid out schedule includes waking at 7am, getting ready by 8.45am, then checking in for the day.
She has one break at midday before training ends at 5pm.
Overnight students allowed one hour of phone time per day from 6.30pm.
“It’s definitely different having only one break throughout the day … but in the workplace that’s how it usually is,” Mirra says.
At 8pm during the stay, a group of teenagers are successfully persuading Mr Boyer to give them an extra half an hour of phone time per day.
They argue the scheduled hour was not long enough to speak with their families, some of which were hundreds of kilometres away.
Mr Boyer says the technical college is about “building something and making it work for the whole (regional) area” of South Australia and not just Port Augusta.
From next year, the technical college will allow enrolments from private schools.
Originally published as Inside Port Augusta Technical College, where students live on-site and are loving it
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