National Careers Week 

National Careers Week (NCW) was celebrated across Australia, between Monday, 12 and Friday, 16 May 2025. The purpose of NCW is to promote the importance of career development and to encourage conversations about the importance of career development, career planning and importantly, career decision making.

Contemporary research highlights that although schools and educators play important roles in influencing the career decisions of young people, the most influential people are student’s parents, guardians, and their siblings. This is why it is so important for family members and guardians to be regularly having career related conversations with their children. National Careers Week (NCW), which ran throughout Week 3, is an important week within the Term 2 calendar as it aims to raise awareness of, and celebrate, the range of career pathway opportunities and services within Australia, particularly for young people. As our Year 10 students begin to consider their Senior School options and the Year 12's continue to plan beyond secondary school completion, NCW serves to remind them of the importance of making positive and informed choices.

There were several significant career related events taking place at Belridge Secondary College during and after NCW, predominantly being organised by the College’s Program Coordinator – Senior School Pathways, Mr Smith and Career Practitioner, Mr Mouritz. Mr Smith and Mr Mouritz are both highly qualified and experienced Career Pathways staff members, located within the Career Hub. Both Mr Mouritz and Mr Smith are available to support students and the wider school community in career pathway guidance. Mr Mouritz’ role is to support all Belridge students and staff to plan and implement career education learning across the College and to support individual students with their career pathway journeys and decision-making processes. Mr Smith coordinates all components of Vocational Education and Training (VET), both in and out of school, the Workplace Learning Program (WPL) and guiding senior school students on pathway options. Both Mr Mouritz and Mr Smith are available for students and parents to make appointments with via email:

E: adam.smith3@eduction.wa.edu.au or ashley.mouritz@education.wa.edu.au

National Career Week - College Events

During NCW students had the opportunity to attend ABCN’s ‘Find Your Purpose’ program and be mentored by Mitsubishi Financial Group staff, who assisted them with their career pathway planning. ATAR bound Year 10 students from Ms Green’s Humanities class participated in a presentation from Curtin AHEAD. Kelly, from Curtin AHEAD discussed students’ post school tertiary options. This group of students will benefit from a Curtin University campus experience in Week 8, where they will get the opportunity to spend the day at a university campus and participate in a range of activities, designed to expose them to university-based learning and its unique environment.  In addition, 96 Year 10 students attended WA’s largest Careers Expo on Friday, 16 May 2025. This was a great opportunity for students to directly network with employer and trainer representatives, ask lots of career related questions and become more informed of their career pathway options. Attendance at the event assisted students with their career development and decision making and will hopefully help guide students with their senior secondary subject selection processes, that will be taking place towards the end of Term 2. 

Year 10 Career Education

Later in the term students Year 10 students will be involved in a series of career education sessions held by classroom teachers and coordinated by the College’s Career Practitioner, Mr Mouritz. Students will be supported to register for and begin compiling an individual profile on the My Future career navigation and planning tool. My Future is the premier career tool used by over two million Australians each year. Users create a profile and complete a range of activities designed to help them identify their skills, abilities, and interests. My Future then uses an algorithm to suggest suitable careers. Students are then prompted and supported to explore careers of interest and complete action planning for pursuing their goals. These career education sessions are designed to support students to choose appropriate upper school courses for Year 11, that will enable them to enter relevant career pathways. Visit My Future to find out more – www.myfuture.edu.au.

Students will also be informed of the importance and process involved in gaining a Unique Student Identifier (USI), which is necessary for enrolment and recording of TAFE, training and university course learning. All Year 10 students will be instructed that it is a requirement they register for a USI – via www.usi.gov.au – and then communicate their USI to the College, before the end of Term 2. Students can contact the College’s Career Practitioner, Mr Mouritz, if they need assistance with this important process.

Year 10 Careers Expo – Friday, 16 May 2025

Close to 100 Year 10 Belridge Secondary College students recently attended the Perth Careers Expo, held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. The annual event is WA’s biggest careers-based attraction, with 14,000 visitors attending each year. The event was a feature of National Careers Week, which took place across the country between 11 and 17 May 2025.

Students navigated through exhibitors stands and benefitted from being able to  directly source tertiary course information (TAFE), university and private training providers; as well as directly networking with some of Australia’s well-known government and private employers. It was great to see so many of our students confidently ask for information, advice and access resources which, going forward, will assist them in making suitable and informed decisions on their career pathway. 

Mr Ashley Mouritz
Career Practitioner

Year 9 & 10 - ABCN: ‘Find Your Purpose’ Excursion 

On Thursday, 15 May 2025, the College’s Program Coordinator: Senior School Pathways, Adam Smith and Career Practitioner, Ashley Mouritz had the pleasure of recently supervising a group of Year 9 and 10 students during an Australian Business Community Networking (ABCN) coordinated excursion to Mitsubishi Financial Group located in the CBD, for the ‘Find Your Purpose’ event. The program helps students better understand themselves, their values, and their ambitions for life. Working with Mitsubishi mentors’ students gained a deeper understanding of what’s important to them, and how they can use their strengths to design a life that they will love. 

Feedback received from the event was excellent, showing that students’ career development and decision making was positively impacted by being involved in the day.

PROGRAM FEEDBACK  

The following are summarised student response results demonstrating the percentage improvement from the program's start to the end.  (Note: the rating scale is a 1 to 7 measure with 1 being the lowest and 7 being the highest. i.e. 5 to 7 is agreed to agree strongly.)  These results demonstrate that the students gained immensely from the program.

STUDENT COMMENTS: 

What was the most useful thing you learnt in this program and/or from your mentor?

“What my strengths and values were and how to incorporate them into my dream job and finding a job.”

“That you don't have to stick to one thing, you can change what you want to do if you want.”

“Doing proper research on careers.”

“That everything you do has an impact.”

Is there anything you'd like to say to your mentor/s?

“It taught me to do my research on finding information on my career, and I find that a very important skill for the future .”

“It gave me an insight into my career and gave me that little push to make sure that I will take the pathway I was planning.”

“I really liked the program, and I would definitely recommend it due to it being so useful and giving me so much information!”

“I rated it as worthwhile coming here I had no motivation to make a move on my career and was just a bit lost but now I feel more motivated and not so lost in my career.”

“Thank you. You have helped me become more comfortable talking and communicating.“

“Thank you so much for helping me and motivating me I feel a lot more comfortable with choosing what I want to do.”

“Thank you very much William and it was quite enjoyable!”

MENTOR COMMENTS

“The students gained more perspective on the future and what it might take to get there.”

“Always good to inspire the youth.”

“Got to connect and understand some of today's youth.”

“Feels good to assist others. People skills for my own personal growth.”

“Helps me think about what I want in life and with my career, amazed me what had changed since last year.”

Mr Ashley Mouritz
Career Practitioner