Students from around the Illawarra have been able to weigh up their future pathways and ask questions of universities, TAFEs and employers for the first time in two years.
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Thousands of students from 31 schools across two days have travelled to the Illawarra Sports Stadium to meet with employer, vocational and higher education representatives from 103 businesses and organisations.
Students canvassed a wide range of post-school options, with interest in tertiary education, employment and training options.
Sisters Sarah and Alice Charlton, Year 12 students at Keira High School, said they were both interested in working with children and liked the idea of working as an au pair.
"I was hoping to see careers, not going straight to university," Sarah said.
"I'm already thinking of deferring uni by a year, so I was hoping to see if there are any careers I can do."
Alice said while she was more keen on going straight to uni, having more space between high school and university was a plus.
Corpus Christi Oak Flats Year 11 student Ada Burgess said she was attending the expo to weigh up different higher education options.
"I'm looking at how the different universities compare," she said.
Ada was joined by her classmates, including Lucas Horne, who is already getting a taste of what life after school might be like with a design course at Sydney design college Whitehouse Institute of Design, something he would like to continue after graduating high school.
"I mostly want to go to university for a business degree and then major in marketing and advertising," Lucas said.
For many students, being able to attend the event and ask questions in person of the exhibitors arrayed inside the stadium was a great benefit. As Callum Donovan, year 12 student at Nowra Christian School pointed out, there is only so much available online.
"The expo gives me more information, because I'm able to talk to them one on one and it's first hand information," he said. "I can ask them my own questions without having to wait online for a response."
Others came armed with questions about their particular pathways, knowing what faced them in the upcoming Higher Schools Certificate (HSC). Year 12 student at Keira High School, Molly Smeaton was one who had come prepared.
"I'm really interested in finding out about early entry and which places do early entry, because I don't want to have all the pressure just on my HSC result."
A report prepared for online higher education provider Open Universities, found in 2020, Year 12 students were uncertain about their future and found it difficult to find information online about what their next steps might be. While university study was likely, even if it was online, students would prefer to experience the social and educational benefits of learning in person, something Illawarra students agreed with.
"With the lockdown period, I found most difficult the interactions with other people, because you couldn't have face-to-face interactions," Lucas said. "So if I were to do university online, I most likely wouldn't enjoy that as much as doing it in person or on campus."
Armed with information about what their chosen pathways required, students came away with a better idea of what they needed to achieve in their HSC to make their hopes a reality.
Aidan Kennedy, a year 11 student at Corpus Christi Oak Flats was always interested in a career in the air force, and after attending the expo had a better idea of how to make this happen.
"It teaches me what to focus on for grades and how hard and how high I have to achieve," he said.
"It's very competitive, so you want to be as good looking as possible."
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