Tip 5 - Get the skills
- You'll need a wide range of skills in your future studies and work. These are sometimes called employability skills, and cover things like:
- communication
- team-work
- planning
- organisation
- problem solving
- working independently
- using initiative
- time management
- Other relevant and important skills to learn include:
- job seeking
- leadership
- negotiation
- conflict resolution
- goal setting, and
- decision-making skills
- It is important to practice these skills while you are still at school:
- for example, do you have the skills to communicate appropriately in different situations? The way you talk to your friends may be very different to the way you should communicate with your teachers, colleagues, or employer.
- Other practical skills will be very important after school too. It is important to think about these things when deciding on realistic post-school pathways. For example:
- How will you get to your TAFE, university, or workplace?
- Can you travel independently?
- Can you find your way to other places for meetings or lunch?
- Are you able to manage your own money?
- Get actively involved in career planning and work experience at school:
- School based career development programs will help you to develop important skills. An example is the School to Work program in public schools.
- You may also like to consider studying vocation based subjects while you are still at school, for example HSC Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses. There are vocational subjects in areas including business services, hospitality, information technology and primary industries.
- You can also study vocational courses at TAFE while you are still at school. These are called TVET courses.
- You could also consider a school based apprenticeship or traineeship. These provide an opportunity to gain a nationally recognised VET qualification as well as your HSC.
- Being able to access and use technology is extremely important in most post-secondary settings:
- How are your skills in using computers, the Internet and other technologies?
- research the types of skills you will need in different settings
- practice and learn new skills if necessary
- There is equipment, support and assistive technology available to help people access and use computers and other technology. These are often called assistive technologies. Some examples are speech recognition software, on-screen keyboards, and software that can read text aloud.
- Think about whether you may need any assistance or have used it in the past. If you can explain to people what your technology needs may be it will be easier for them to help you access it.
- There are some great free applications which can help people to access technology. EduApps consists of eight useful software collections that are free for you to download and use. MyStudyBar is the most popular, and is a tool which helps overcome problems that students commonly experience with studying, reading and writing.
