Aspirations matter

Thank you for joining us! Please post any comments or insights about Unit 3 here.

As an immigrant student and now a teacher, i found this unit really relevant and interesting. I was the first one to go to university. It was really hard as my parents could not help me make a choice as what to study. I became a teacher by chance and not by choice. But I am glad it happened.

This unit had a lot of material. It was a pleasant surprise to see that interest and altruism were two of the main drivers of career choice at school.

I found this information in this section interesting. More avenues need to be explored to show students the options. Having former students give talks and explain their path could also be useful. I especially took note of the points that 1) alignment between educational and occupational aspiratio

I think stereotypes have a big impact when it comes to students choosing career paths. I also think that we as teachers need to make the path to VET studies more attractive for students as not all students aspire to UNI.

The unit has made me wonder if our students really know what is the difference between a VET Course, TAFE course, University Course and understand the different pathways to fulfil their aspirations. I agree that these conversations need to start earlier and I am thinking Year 8 in our high school se

As an RTO college with only Year 11 and Year 12 students, it is a little different for us as teachers. Our students can complete VET training courses, as well as VCAL and VCE. In our Year 10 feeder schools, students are given the knowledge about TAFE and VET courses so they can make informed choices

This unit was great. I was quite surprised by the drag and drop results. It made me think about the importance getting to know your students. Many of my students don't talk about what they want to be and there isn't always an opportunity to talk about it in class.

This unit was interesting when consideing my students who are about 60 % from migrant families and the first to attend higher education in Australia. They are very ambitious for university alone and my challenge is trying to encourage students who are not academically inclined or who have a differen

I enjoyed looking at each of the career areas e.g. Teaching, STEM and examining the factors that influenced student choices. It was interesting to note that there still seems to be more males entering into career paths such as the Military, with females predominantly entering into occupations within

I found the drag and drop activity at the beginning fascinating. I certainly have witnessed a shift in interest from medicine/law/teaching careers toward things like YouTube star and games developer with year 5 students I was teaching a while back. I personally find it challenging not to judge the m

I found the breakdown of descriptors to be really interesting. It definitely made me think about stereotyping and its impact.

I am a Hospitality Teacher, interesting reading what students perceptions about VET and University. When I was in High School over 30 years ago. It was Tafe or University if you wanted to go on with tertiary studies and you stayed in course until you finished it then went for the job. I am amazed a

I was particularly interested in Q.3.9, which asked about the reasons behind misalignment in university and VET aspirations. It struck me that each individual thinks about things differently. For instance, I tend to be the kind of person who does one thing at a time and just see where it leads me. I

We, as teachers, should explain the attributes of the various pathways open to students be it a year off, a job , TAFE or university study. All have advantages for the people in our care. The reason you have choseb a TAFE pathway initially does not preclude them from going to Uni at a later date. Co

I agree with Bethany that we should be pushing VET more. As I work between both systems I can see how beneficial VET training can be as an option for students straight out of school as well as mature age students. While VET has well established promotional programs and is generally understood to be

I was most interested in the responses about TAFE - clearly times have changed and students are not aware of the value of the TAFE system. The training and education at TAFE can set students up for a rewarding lifestyle. I felt the responses demonstrated a lack of understanding of education and nega

Often, students have strong ideas about what they want to do but they may struggle to listen to what teachers have to say about how to get there. There is often more importance placed on Cold knowledge than Hot knowledge, particularly what parents and peers say.