Year 10 Work Experience

Work experience provides our Year 10 students with a valuable insight into the world of work. Many students use it to help them to make decisions about their future pathway. The Year 10 students from both St Margaret’s School and Berwick Grammar School recently completed a week of work experience. The girls went out for the week beginning Monday 1 May and the boy’s week began on Monday 15 May. As usual, the students had organised a wide variety of placements. Feedback from the employers was excellent and two students have provided a reflection on their experiences below.

Mr Tony Sheahan and Ms Lynda Vague

 

Darcy Dillon  – Berwick Grammar School

During my week of work experience, I arrived every morning at different locations to meet up with my staff member for the day and our clients. I was working with Outlook Services, a community centre specializing in helping people to become more independent. I got this placement through first applying and then being interviewed by the Disability Services Manager.

Every day was different as I had to adapt to our clients’ needs. I got opportunities to connect with everyone by attempting activities like catching public transport and participating in sport. Things that our clients would never attempt alone. Even though each day only lasted for eight hours, by the end you felt like friends. All the activities were designed to help each client to become more independent. Obviously it was mainly my supervisor’s responsibility, but I actually had responsibilities myself. This centred around caring for the needs of clients, like reminding them when to eat, and even feeding them if needed. Most of the clients may have been 40 to 60 year olds, but they all looked up to me and admired how independent I was for my age. This week of experience gave me a much needed insight into the lives of people whom are challenged every day.

Being put in these situations forced me to utilize skills such as problem solving, planning, organizing, and self-management. The goal of the company may have been to make clients more self-reliant, and in return that is also what I became. The main thing I learnt was how different the lives of humans can be, yet how we share common issues such as saving money for lunch. I was treated kindly, just like any other staff member, and even offered a chance to visit again.

 

Carmen Ubermanowicz – St Margaret’s School

During work experience, I had the chance to observe the designing and creating of plans in the industry of architectural design at Delany Consulting Group. I watched how architectural designs for major stores are drawn up and also listened to all the different factors that come into play when planning, such as fire exits, traffic management and strategic placement of shelves.

My work experience journey began with the employers explaining to me what they do and how they do it; things such as drafting, dealing with customers and visualizing plans using software and programs. Each person in the company had a specific job along the process of receiving a project, choosing a style, drafting and sending them back to the client; all these jobs put together help them get the work done quickly and efficiently.

A highlight of my week was getting the opportunity to complete my own project, to create my dream room. First, I was to choose an atmosphere for the room and scavenge online for pictures relating to my chosen theme. These pictures were printed and pasted on to a large poster board producing a ‘mood board’. The mood board created a visual representation of the atmospheric goal for my dream room. Then I was introduced to an architectural drafting program called Revit. I learned how to enter the measurements I had collected earlier into the software to create walls as well as give them colour and texture. After the walls, floors, windows and ceilings had been drawn, I found models of 3D furniture to add creating a realistic 3D image of my ‘dream room’. Then all my drafts and images were printed and stored in a scroll.

Most interestingly, I learnt that there are entirely different professions under the umbrella of architecture, such as 3D modelers who create 3D files of various furniture. The 3D furniture is used by architectural drafters when creating realistic images of their design. This concept intrigued me and I think I would be interested to continue this profession in the future.