Giving students the opportunity to use their problem-solving skills in real world settings has been the foundation of All Saints’ College’s initiative ‘The Agency’, which allows students to undertake work opportunities within the school.
The program, which has run since semester two of 2019, has provided 40 contracts to students to work in roles as diverse as soundtrack composer, graphic designer and book reviewer.
More than 75 students have applied for job openings in that time, and the school has paid students a total of about $10,000 for their work over the past year.
All Saints’ College principal Belinda Provis told Business News the program came about because of feedback from the school’s business and community partners, who often noted that high school graduates lacked skills relevant to the workplace.
“We can see just how capable our young people are; they have passion and amazing skills they’ve been developing through school, and they have mindsets and approaches to problems that are different to the teachers,” Ms Provis said.
“When you put that together, you realise The Agency is a logical next step in terms of being able to get real world projects completed by young people with skills, passion and talent, under the mentorship of our staff for the benefit of the community.”
Ms Provis said the program had been informed by advice from The Beyond Boundaries Institute, an advisory group associated with the school that featured business leaders from across industries.
She said that had helped The Agency to formulate job offers that encouraged students to be creative within a structured, regimented framework.
“We’re not just looking for people to do the jobs that nobody else wants to do,” she said. “These are real tasks that our staff could do … however we all see it as our role to help and mentor young people in the development of their skills.
“The students get that added confidence of not only learning how to apply for a job and sit for an interview, they learn under the mentorship of their staff mentor what KPIs are, how they need to report, and what are the deliverables.”
