Learning about work, working life and post‐school options: guiding students’ reflections on paid part‐time work

Abstract

As many, perhaps most, high‐school students engage in paid part‐time employment, there is available in any Australian senior school classroom a range of work experiences that can be used to assist students to consider and reflect on working life and post‐school pathways. Furthermore, these experiences are more readily available and authentic than those provided through school‐organised work experience programmes. In order to understand the effectiveness of such experiences, students and teachers in six schools across two Australian states participated in processes of guided reflection on these experiences. Consistently, across cohorts of students in all of these schools, the authentic workplace experiences of paid part‐time work were identified as assisting in securing a range of educational purposes associated with students’ learning about work, the world of work and post‐school options and pathways. Key variables in the likely success of this initiative were the facilitative capacity of teachers, their knowledge and valuing of working life outside schools and students’ capacities and readiness to engage in reflection on their paid work.

Keywords:

• Post‐school pathways
• Learning through work
• Students’ part‐time work
• Student reflections
• Authentic work experiences

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation Program of ANTA/DEST. We would like to acknowledge the schools, teachers and students who participated in this project and, in particular, Jen Walker from the North Eastern Learning and Local Employment network. Thanks also to the reviewers for their supportive and constructive criticisms.