As your child navigates their teenage years, it's essential to start considering their future goals and aspirations.
One aspect that holds significant value is gaining work experience. Work experience not only provides practical skills and knowledge but also shapes a child’s character and lays the foundation for a successful future. It also underpins support for our school values, as it reflects the virtues of courage, integrity, and respect.
Exploring different work environments allows you to uncover their interests, strengths, and talents. Work experience can also lead into part-time jobs, volunteering, or internships. Through work experience, you can discern their passions and discover the path God has designed for them. Embracing work experiences can help your child make informed decisions about their educational and career choices, aligning their passions with God's calling. If you have a child in Year 10, who is about to participate in work experience, I encourage you to spend some time in a conversation with them about what their giftings and passions are, as well as how they align with a vocation that they could see themselves in.
This is an equally important conversation to have with younger family members. Finding a reason to learn will engage your child more meaningfully in their studies as it connects them with a reason to learn. This can build passion and interest in school, when a child can see how they can apply their knowledge and experience in a practical manner.
“Work experience equips students with vital skills that extend beyond academics”
Work experience equips students with vital skills that extend beyond academics. Through interacting with work colleagues, employers, and customers, your child has the opportunity to practice serving others, being resilient, having courage in unfamiliar situations, and developing new skills and abilities.
These skills are not only essential for professional success but also for personal growth. By learning to serve others through their work, they have opportunity to develop empathy, compassion, and a strong work ethic, soft skills that are, nowadays, in as much demand as a qualification.
Our work experience is an important part of your child’s growth and development at Emmanuel. I encourage you to have a conversation with any of your children at home about what kind of work they would like to be involved in and start planning their future with them. They may often be unsure on what their future looks like and it may take time for them to understand themselves. A conversation can only hope to ignite the flame within them to lead them in the path God wants them to take.
Ed Moroni — Head of Students Secondary