Navy, health, engineering: Diverse career options on show at school's expo

The third annual Careers in Industry expo was staged at Wodonga Senior Secondary College on Thursday, May 16, with more than 1500 pupils from years 9 to 12 given the opportunity to speak with 80-plus stallholders about their future work prospects.

Christopher Bayliss, a year 12 student at the college, has long had his heart set on a career in the navy, which remains the case, but revealed the expo provided him with different ways to approach it.

"I was originally thinking of going into the navy to start off with as a regular seaman, but I thought once I finish year 12 I may as well go in as an officer," he said.

"I have started the process of signing on into the navy. I have to go through the medical and the fitness side of it to see if I can actually qualify for the position."

Christopher, 18, said the expo provided him with a great chance to interact with Border and North East businesses, some of which weren't familiar to him.

"As a student, you don't actually know what you want to do half the time, but hopefully things like careers expos will actually give us some insight into what we want to do," he said.

"Making local connections is really good. A lot of the students want to go towards the trade pathways and these career expos actually allow them to meet the local tradies, truckies and things like that."

Fellow Wodonga Senior student Mione Palima, 17, is focused on a career in health, with dentistry or nursing on her radar.

She used the expo to get a better gauge of her university options.

"It has been interesting because there's some unis here that I haven't seen at expos before," she said.

"I felt I had a strict path, but after going to the expo, I learned I could definitely do more. If I go into a Bachelor of Science, then I can pick whichever career is right for me.

"Days like this provide clarity."

WSSC wellbeing and pathways director Lana Melbourne said the expo was about more than providing career pathways for students.

"It's about employers who have got jobs now or who've got opportunities now and exposing the kids face-to-face with those industries," she said.

"We've tried to have most industries represented. Everything from local government through to private employers and businesses, TAFEs and universities and the Defence Force.

"I think the kids are now branching out with their career options and thinking beyond those traditional pathways.

"COVID has certainly helped them think about what is out there for them and finding a job that they love doing rather than one that they think is just going to pay the bills."

Wodonga-based JC Butko Engineering was among the businesses in attendance and OHS manager Jared Bedford was blown away by the response.

"This is the first careers expo we've been to, but there's a lot of industry expos that we do. We saw this pop up and couldn't miss out on the opportunity," he said.

"There's not many career expos like this getting around. It's good to see the interest from the kids and the ones that are serious about what they want to do."

Mr Bedford said JC Butko Engineering offered work experience to at least six WSSC students each year and revealed half of them went on to be apprentices with the company.

"We take on half dozen apprentices every year and we have up to 25 apprentices at any one time. We almost exclusively draw from local talent," he said.

"When you've got a kid that really wants to apply themselves and they have already been in and proved their attitude, it's hard to say no."

Students from Wodonga Middle Years College and the Flexible Learning Centre also attended.

The Careers in Industry expo started with 35 exhibitors in 2022, jumped to 55 in 2023 and had more than 90 booked this year.