Providing students with opportunities to explore career pathways is an important part of the Stars program.
Recently our Year 11 Thuringowa Stars were taken on a camp to Cairns to find out more about employment options outside of Townsville.
First stop was a site visit to HMAS Cairns, where students met with Lance Bombardier Joshua Youngblutt (Specialist Recruitment Team – Indigenous) and Able Seaman Nathan Graham, who took them on a ship tour.
Lance Bombardier Youngblutt also had a yarn with our young women about career pathways in the Navy for Indigenous people, including the GAP Year and Indigenous Development Programs.
Next up students met with local Indigenous group DIYDG (Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good), a local youth-led organisation that aims to inspire, equip and empower the next generation. They took part in a Leadership Workshop, which encouraged them to be Strong, Deadly, Indigenous Sisters.
During this visit, our young women were also lucky enough to meet some of the inspiring Indigenous women from the ‘Elders to Cleveland’ program, who facilitate workshops with young people at Cleveland Detention Centre.
The camp concluded with a breakfast visit from Tony Mitchell, Project Officer at the Department of Environment and Science.
Tony spoke about his career journey, starting out as an Indigenous Ranger and being promoted to a Project Officer role, and discussed some of the barriers he faced, including having to relocate his family off Country for work.
He also told the students that the Department is working to increase the number of Indigenous women employed through the Northern Indigenous Employment and Development Strategies.
It was wonderful to see our Stars building their understanding of some of the many dynamic career options that are available to them once they complete Year 12.