[Oz-gifted] thank you & great to hear about an apprenticeship!

[Sue Larsen]

LOL, 5 minute parent teacher interviews, ahh I remember them. Don't forget 
you can make an appointment with your teaher at any time. Also a great way 
to observe for yourself just what is happening in the classroom is to be a 
classroom helper for reading or whatever.

Did i say mine is doing Heavy Vehicles Mechanic apprenticeship? Well he is 
but it did not come easy and he had to go out and find it. He did work 
experience with school there , then he conned the Carreers advisor into 
letting him go there every Wed instead of sport, somehow he made it well 
known what he wanted at the workshop and when he wanted it. He found a job 
network that could cover him with insurance so that he could continue doing 
work exp. during school holidays. I think he hassled everyone big time. 
Typical when he really wants something and he wanted out of school. Having 
said that he also wanted badly to work at this particular place because it 
is the cream of the industry  along the coast and the staff there fitted 
right into his areas of interest (stockmarket, downhill mountain bikes, 
those motor bike things you ride in water - can't think of the name of them 
at the mo- hot cars, making lots of money, investing etc etc.
He hates Tafe but gets distinctions and has not yet owned one of the text 
books, hmmm,.
This ideal place did not want to put an apprentice on when DS wanted to 
start and actually told him to go back to school and they would pick him up 
the next year. Went down like a lead balloon of course. In the third week of 
January DS decided to apply for some other apprenticeships, 2 of them, we 
talked about lowering his standards - we did not want him to leave school - 
but he went ahead and applied, attended his interviews and was offered both 
of them on the same day. Luckily he told them both he would decide and ring 
back in the afternoon because about lunchtime his ideal place rang to say 
that one of their apprentices had transferred to the Brisbane workshop, they 
were now short staffed and had asked the guys in the workshop (8 of them) 
which work exp student they would like. DS was the unanimous choice and he 
started work two days later.
There are lots of avenues that kids can explore, talk to the career advisor 
at school, at length, when your time comes, have your son find a part time 
job so he has a work history, do his resume yourself as these work placement 
agencies are not really competent at selling your child and the resumes they 
give the kids are disgusting. The best advice I had was from the career 
advisor and it was ......to go out there and find a place that your child 
wants to do work experience at yourself - don't leave it to the school as 
they have the usual garden variety and not necessarily the network that you 
might have or be prepared to obtain. The career advisor said to me that if 
every student had a parent who was as prepared to make the phone calls, do 
the resume, talk to prospective people etc. that he could put his feet up 
and the students would all be working!!!
As for the Trades stigma, who cares? My child is employed, happy and doing 
well. He is already being headhunted by other companies; he already has more 
tickets for things than most of the older guys there, his boss is worried he 
will leave, he has contacts in Indonesia and the mines where he can earn 
really big dollars and see a bit of the world and plans to teach at Tafe 
when he is sick (as if) of doing this. And the time is right, the govt knows 
there is a trades shortage and is throwing money into attracting the kids 
who want to follow this path and the employers are willing to bargain.
Nuff said.
Best,
Sue

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robyn Menzies" <RMenzies at bmcc.nsw.gov.au>
To: <oz-gifted at cobia.ed.qut.edu.au>
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2006 12:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Oz-gifted] thank you & great to hear about an apprenticeship!


>
>
> Hi Sue,
>
> Thanks Sue (and everyone else) for your comments about my daughters
> disheartening first report. It's Parent teacher interviews this week
> (not that the allotted time is ever enough) so I will follow up from
> there - her teacher seems pretty approachable. I was encouraged to see
> what you wrote about your son....
>
>
> "Note that mine is 19 now, he is happy and healthy and we made it
> through
> school, at times it was pretty nerve racking for all of us. He still has
> his
> moments, they are just *older* teenagey moments and he still pressures
> himself.  No he did not go all the way through school but that is OK
> also,
> we have to look at the whole person not just the school person. He is
> nearly
> at the end of his apprenticeship in something he loves to do and has
> companies from near and far trying to tempt him away from his current
> employer with money and perks. It's quite an eyeopener for us all but
> best
> of all it boosts his self esteem and sense of self worth."
>
> It's so good to hear about kids (especially gifted ones) taking a
> non-academic track to careers - my older son (who is 12 and just
> starting in on the "teenagey moments") is really not suited to the
> traditional school system and I often think he won't make it to year 12.
> In the past there were lots of options for kids who left school at year
> 10 (or even yr 9) but these days there seems to be such a societal
> stigma about apprenticeships (or indeed any work path that doesn't
> involve a degree) that I sometimes get a bit depressed about it all. I'm
> sure he'll find his way eventually  (after all - he's made it this far
> fairly unscathed and there were many times when I thought he wouldn't!)
> but it's just nice to hear someone else successfully navigating "the
> system".
>
> Thanks
>
> Robyn
>
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