Despite the persistent rain, students in Sydney’s south jumped at the chance to take part in and get inspired at Kingsgrove High School’s (KHS) annual ‘Future Links’ careers expo.
Held on Friday, June 7, students from KHS, Kingsgrove North High School, Beverly Hills Girls High School and Wiley Park Girls High School, were given a valuable opportunity to explore career pathways.
They visited stalls from apprenticeship companies, education providers and top-tier universities at the event including the University of New South Wales, the University of Technology Sydney, Sydney University, Macquarie University, the Universities Admissions Centre (NSW & ACT), NSW Police Recruitment, Defence Force Recruiting and NECA Training and Apprenticeships.
Year 12 student at Kingsgrove North High School, Emilia Dimopoulos was particularly interested in the University of Sydney stall on the day as she hopes to study psychology and neuroscience after graduation.
“Being here really helps me get equipped with the knowledge and skills I need to get into university,” Emilia told The Greek Herald on the day.
“These events are really important to encourage students to explore any pathway, to not limit themselves to one specific area. We do have so many opportunities as students and I think it’s just a very encouraging and inclusive environment to be in to learn about tertiary study.”
Emilia was joined by her proud mum Chryssa Karagiannidou at the careers expo and she said it was an important initiative not only for students but parents as well.
“I come from a different system. I was not born in Australia and I experienced a concept completely different from what the Australian education system offers, so having the expo was really good for me to understand how things work,” Chryssa said.
“At the same time, the careers expo helps me understand what I need to do as a parent to support my child and to show her options for different careers that she might not have even considered before.”
Amongst the stall browsing and informative conversations, there were also a number of official speeches on the day by Master of Ceremonies and KHS Careers Advisor, Artemis Theodoris; Principal at KHS, Olga Sofo; Councillor Nancy Liu from Georges River Council; and Director of Educational Leadership Beverley Hills Principals Network, Clint White.
Mrs Theodoris spoke to The Greek Herald and said the annual careers expo was the culmination of a week-long initiative where students had a chance to take a deeper look at their future after high school.
“These events are so important because our students feel a lot more comfortable being in their own space… They get a lot more out of it. They’re in a smaller environment as opposed to other expos that run in larger spaces. It’s beneficial because they’re able to just ask a lot more questions and not feel so anxious being in such a big crowd,” Mrs Theodoris said.
This is the fourth year the careers expo has been running and after taking a look around at the students streaming through the school hall to browse the stalls, Mrs Theodoris said she’s excited for what the future holds.
“Every year, we make it bigger and bigger,” she promised with a smile, leaving everyone excited for next year’s event.
