St Aloysius College is a girls’ school with a long history of empowering young women. Located in the heart of the city of Adelaide, St Aloysius College educates girls from Reception to Year 12 in the Mercy Tradition.
High-quality career education is a whole-school priority at St Aloysius College. The learning opportunities and experiences provided to St Aloysius College students reflect contemporary career development practices, and bring to life the National Career Education Strategy Ready for a World Yet To Be Imagined.
St Aloysius College has a professionally qualified Career Development Educator who is also a qualified and practising teacher. The Career Development Educator (referred to as the Career Counsellor by students) provides individual career counselling to students and oversees the career development learning programs implemented throughout the primary and secondary years. The Career Development Educator also supports students applying for tertiary study and academic study scholarships and can also support the parents of St Aloysius College students as parents and their daughters explore the possible pathways beyond school. St Aloysius College has a dedicated Careers Centre.
St Aloysius College students have high aspirations for their future. Career education programs at St Aloysius College are designed to encourage students to think broadly about future careers, challenge gender stereotypes, develop career decision-making knowledge, skills and attitudes, build their career self-efficacy and provide career engagement opportunities to empower their future career decisions. Career education programs begin from Year 1, underpinned by effective pedagogy, with opportunities for students to engage in exciting and fun career learning throughout the primary years at St Aloysius College.
Student-centred career education learning and experiences in the secondary school encourage St Aloysius College students to hone their capabilities in preparation for the transition from school into tertiary study or employment. Specific career education programs in the secondary school reflect innovative and developmentally sensitive approaches to enhancing the career development of every student. Programs are tailored to meet the particular needs and high aspirations of St Aloysius College students. Throughout Year 11 and Year 12, students are connected to personalised career supports, enabling them to develop greater career self-efficacy and plan their years beyond school with heightened confidence.
Significant career education programs are embedded within Year 8 and Year 10, to inspire St Aloysius College students to view career development as a combination of perpetual learning and skill enrichment across their lifespan. The Year 8 Future in Focus career development program specifically enhances students’ knowledge of employability skills and supports development of the social and emotional skills required to effectively engage in future work. The Future in Focus program also extends students’ cognitive knowledge of the diversity of STEM Careers, offering students greater scope to participate in STEM careers that are predicted to have strong employment prospects.
During Year 10, all students undertake the SACE Stage 1 subject, Personal Learning Plan (PLP). Successful completion of the PLP provides St Aloysius College students with a solid foundation on which to make important decisions about future careers. During this year-long subject, students undertake work experience as an invaluable way of acquiring professional communication skills and gaining confidence in their ability to apply their employability skills in an authentic work environment.
In addition to SACE subjects directly related to the world of work, many St Aloysius College students combine their SACE studies with VET courses. The inner city location of the College affords students an advantage in terms of ease of access to VET courses offered across Adelaide in all directions. Students undertaking VET courses are monitored by the Careers Counsellor in terms of attendance, motivation and success in their VET studies.
The Career Guest Speaker program at St Aloysius College provides secondary school students with the opportunity to personally meet and learn from people employed in specific careers. Speakers represent a range of diverse and dynamic career areas, tailored each year to meet the interests of students. St Aloysius College facilitates numerous opportunities for students to engage with universities from across Australia, TAFE and RTOs, to deepen their knowledge of post-school study options, including undergraduate and postgraduate university study.
Developing the capabilities of young women to make informed and empowered decisions about their future is a shared responsibility that St Aloysius College actively nurtures. St Aloysius College is committed to providing the highest level of career education to our students, empowering them to reach their potential as capable learners and confident young women inspired to construct successful careers.
As part of the Catholic Education SA STEM Learning Initiative, STEM vocational pathways have been included under the Students tab for all VET courses listed in the CESA Directory. Links take readers to Training.gov.au which is the National Register on Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Australia. The website contains detailed information about Registered Training Organisations (RTO) and Accredited courses. Contact the VET and Careers Coordinators at your schools for further information.
