Find your future focus: A place-based career-education program for high-school students

The “Find your future focus” pilot program was created according to best-practice principles for students from LSES backgrounds, with the aim of addressing issues in career-education provision identified in the project Higher-education career advice for students from low socioeconomic status (LSES) backgrounds. Specifically, the program sought to address problems related to the unique experiences of students from LSES backgrounds in regional, remote and rural areas; and the need for collaborative, multi-stakeholder partnerships between universities, schools and other career-related stakeholder groups. It primarily drew on the best-practice principles: “Design career development learning activities that are responsive to the local school and community contexts, considering employment trends” and “Present opportunities for local education and careers equally next to opportunities that require students to move for work or study.” To this end, the University of Canberra (UC) designed, implemented and evaluated a career-education program for high school students with the aim of encouraging students to become more future focussed. In this program, year seven and eight students in two schools, one LSES regional, and the other rural, participated in a series of lessons around developing student knowledge and understanding of possible local careers and highlighting the connection between valuable school subjects and career pathways.