Victorian Skills Gateway– classroom lesson plan

Year 8: Exploring the Victorian Skills Gateway

Alignment to the Victorian Careers Curriculum Framework (VCCF)

Stage: Career exploration

Competencies: Discover the learning habits and study skills that help people achieve good education and training outcomes. Explore the importance of a variety of skill types in the workplace.

Stage: Career management

Competencies: Understand how choices are made and explore what can be learned from their decision-making experiences. Understand problem solving strategies and goal setting in making career and life decisions.

Learning outcome: Students can use the Victorian Skills Gateway and other career resources to locate relevant occupational, education and training information, and identify occupational skills and training requirements.

Additional resources: Youth Central; Australian Apprenticeships Pathways; Job Guide and myfuture

Lesson details for teachers

Suggested length: 100 mins

The focus of the lesson is to explore the occupational information available on the Victorian Skills Gateway website. The lesson plan is a guide and teachers/careers practitioners may need to adapt to suit the needs and experiences ofthe students.

  1. If students have not used the Victorian Skills Gateway website before, direct them to the ‘Making the most of this website’ and ‘Useful terms’ web pages in the ‘Students’ section. This will assist students in navigating the site. Explain that they will be using additional resources as well as the Victorian Skills Gateway in this lesson. Students may need an introduction to the Youth Central, Australian Apprenticeships Pathways, myfuture and Job Guide websites to help them understand the type of occupational information each provides. The school careers practitioner can be of assistance.
  1. Explain that occupations can be categorised in a number of different ways e.g. level of qualification, or by industry e.g. hospitality and tourism. These categories make it easier when seeking information to help make career decisions.
  1. Students work in teams of 3-4, to complete the Victorian Skills Gateway Occupation Promotion activity on page 3 of this lesson plan. The response they prepare can be digital, or in hard copy, or any other format selected by the teacher.
  1. The occupation can be selected by the team in one of four ways:
  • based on an occupation they would like to know more about
  • by asking the team to choose from a list of occupations based on local needs
  • using a random approach with the team selecting a number which then matches preselected occupations
  • working from a list developed by the teacher, perhaps using the ‘Where the jobs are’ list located in the ‘Jobs and careers’ link in the Career Practitioners/Students menu.
  1. The teams will need access to the websites listed in the additional resources section.
  1. On completion, students will present their resource to the class or another Year 8 class. This could also take the form of a mini careers expo.
  1. Students can download the suitable Year 8 Career Action Plan from the Victorian Careers Curriculum Framework website the career action plan customised for the cohort or school. Check with the careers practitioner regarding the choice of career action plan. Students should use the information and knowledge gained to do their career action plan.

Activity for year 8: Victorian Skills Gateway Occupation Promotion

Use the Victorian Skills Gateway to learn about occupations:

The brief

Your team has been asked to promote an occupation and develop a resource that will positively inform local Year 8 students about the education requirements and job skills needed. You will be required to research and present your resource to a group of Year 8 students, and your team will need to be able to answer their questions on the occupation.

Your resource should try to inspire other young people to consider choosing the occupation, particularly skill shortage occupations.

Use resources from the Victorian Skills Gateway and additional information from: Youth Central; Australian Apprenticeships Pathways; Job Guide and myfuture

You could start by brainstorming ideas with your team.

Requirements

You will need to provide information about:

  • at least four daily tasks performed by a person in the occupation
  • two personal qualities needed for working in the occupation
  • if is it a skill shortage occupation
  • where most of the jobs are located
  • the weekly earnings, and if this occupation is paid above, at, or below the average weekly wage (see the ‘Job Outlook’ section)
  • one related occupation or specialisation
  • the qualification suitable for entry into the occupation
  • the requirement for entry into the course
  • two providers that offer the training
  • the course provider that is closest to your school; and if there another course provider located within 50 kilometres
  • the future pathways available for this occupation, and the further training you could undertake to follow this pathway.

Use the knowledge that you have gained from using the Victorian Skills Gateway to complete your Career Action Plan.

Victorian Skills Gateway – classroom lesson plan / 1