Claire Pech – Careers Advisor

It is great to see the Year 12 class of 2018 now fully ensconced into their new roles as leaders within the school. For those of you who are looking for careers appointments please email me any time with three study times for the following week and I can book you in on a Monday-Wednesday. I am aware that the new Year 12 students have assessment tasks in a few weeks, but it’s a great idea to chat this term to start any career conversations, so the process is less daunting in 2018.

Ireland Job Market

I was overseas during the holidays in Ireland, and I was able to see so many career stories at play. As this is something that fascinates me, I find individual career stories of real interest and I was able to reflect on some interesting stories that came up whilst travelling.

The short term, or “gig” economy is alive and well in Ireland. Short term contracts seem to be much more normal, contractual work now seems to be the norm and individual friends of mine are now marketing themselves effectively, using their own personal brands, and this is having success for them. LinkedIn is still a primary self-marketing tool and recruitment tool, as across the rest of the world, and Ireland is now (and has been for a few decades) a technological hub for the tech industry. Many tech giants are using Dublin as their European headquarters for technology such as AirBnB and Facebook. Google graduates are snapped up quickly from tertiary institutions. Like Australia, graduates have a much lower rate of unemployment compared to their associates who left school in Year 12, and the professional sector for 2017 now has a 3.3% unemployment rate.

Due to the recession over the last decade in Ireland, school-based careers advisors were halved (time allocation) to reduce costs, and so students missed key advice for tertiary choices. The “Irish Mum” has been cited as having key significance in 25% of students’ choices and the “Irish Dad” cited in 12% of cases. Independent schools and higher socio-economic private schools are reported to have smoother career trajectories for their students, due to the fact that they have role models in more senior career positions. They also have very strong networks, which is invaluable for the pursuit of employment.

Ireland has a thriving, but small Jewish population. Historically the Jewish people arrived in Ireland back in 1079 and by the early 1900’s the Jewish population was up to 5,000 people (for a small country of three million people). The Jewish population is now thought to be around 2,000 people, with two Jewish Day Schools in Dublin and the Headquarters of Jewish Ireland in Dublin also.

Notices

Anyone interested in working overseas in the US next year on a GAP year, this may interest you. It is a camp specifically for Jewish students and so they are solely looking for Australian students from a Jewish background.

www.ccusa.com.au/PROGRAMS/Camp-Counselors-USA/Jewish-Camp

UNSW Info Day (mainly for Year 12 2017 but Year 12 2018 can attend)

Date:16 December 9.00am to 4.00pm, UNSW Kensington Campus

With new UAC round dates for 2018 entry, get all your questions answered in time for the December Round.

www.futurestudents.unsw.edu.au/unsw-info-day

National Skills Week Videos

These shine the spotlight on Australia’s Vocational Education. They are for students interested in vocational training (e.g trades, skills based jobs etc)

http://www.nationalskillsweek.com.au/media/video-gallery/

Want to See What a Surgeon Does?

Students interested in medicine may be interested by this video on what surgeons actually do.

https://studentedge.org/career-life/find-a-career/surgeons