The annual VET in Schools Excellence Awards were held on 12 November to celebrate the outstanding achievements of Vocational Education & Training (VET) students within our regional schools.
Around 670 secondary school students are enrolled in VET subjects and School Based Apprenticeships in our region this year. Fifty students were nominated for the Awards, during the Awards ceremony at Moama Bowling Club all finalists were presented with certificates, and winners were announced in 13 categories. This year a category for students studying the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning – VCAL, was introduced to acknowledge this learning pathway.
More than 250 guests attended the event which was organised by the Campaspe Cohuna LLEN. Those present included students and their families, trainers, teachers, host employers and sponsoring businesses.
Music students from Echuca College performed four great numbers for the audience. Guest speaker was Kelly Shotton who talked about her career journey to her current employment with local business Foodmach. Kelly is a standout for women in non-traditional roles.
Students were nominated for the Awards by their VET teachers and trainers. Completion of a work placement in the relevant industry is a pre-requisite to be a finalist with host employers providing reports on individual student performance. Host employers provided evidence of the skills in their comments such as “uses their initiative, really contributed to the team, eager to learn and demonstrate new skills, and really showed great industry knowledge”.
Nominated students submitted their resume and finalists were interviewed by a panel of judges who have put some time into reading up on the students nominations before the final interview. The process from submitting nominations, including Resumes and Portfolios is good preparation for entering the workforce.
Judges Brendon Hawken, Belinda Egan and Michael Pratt were again impressed with the calibre of the finalists. Students demonstrated strong employability skills in their assessment reports and interviews but the Judges were most impressed with the “Can Do” attitude of so many of the students. One proudly said “I am not sure exactly what I want to do but I will give anything a crack.”
November 2019
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