General News
12 September, 2024
Students unite for lessons on industry
STUDENTS from across the region united on one campus to learn about the importance of science and mathematics in industry, as they begin to consider what careers they would like to pursue.
Hundreds of students from Cobden Technical School, Timboon P-12 School, Hampden Specialist School and Camperdown College joined their peers at Terang College to enjoy a wide range of workshops and presentations from local businesses.
The workshops highlighted how lessons from the classroom are applied in the workplace.
A major focus for the day was workshops from leaders in the dairy and agricultural industry.
Corangamite Shire produces the largest percentage of Australia’s milk and is renowned for its beef, lamb, grain and wool.
With a total economic output north of $800 million each year and 32 per cent of the shire’s total employment working in the industry, agriculture had a major presence on the day.
Neil Porter Legacy Corangamite representative Dean Dwyer said the annual event had continued to be a success in supporting the emerging industry leaders on their path to adulthood.
“The day is specially aimed at Year 7 and Year 8 students and the idea is to try and make connection between working with maths and science in the classroom as part of the curriculum and how it transfers out in to a rage of business industries,” he said.
“The program is sponsored by DemoDAIRY so we have at least half of the presenters have a dairy or agricultural focus, and the others are those who would like to be involved in the day.
“I reached out to most of the businesses who presented on the day and they were more than happy to be involved because they understand these are our future industry leaders.
“They’re more than happy to try and get the students involved and help ignite that passion for any industry they may be involved with.”
The brief to the presenters was to provide a hands-on workshop for the students, and within the time throughout the day the students rotate to different workshops which included several dairy presenters.
Terang College Year 8 student Jobe Wilson said presentations from the agricultural industry had helped to inspire his interest.
“We learnt about the careers around the district,” he said.
“It has been interesting.
“I liked the workshop from Ridley’s Agriproducts and learning all about the food.
“I want to work in the agriculture industry, and this helped me know more about it.
“Some people in my family work in the industry and I think it is a good job to have.”
Neil Porter Legacy representative Ruby Absalom said it was good to see students, like Jobe, making the most of the opportunity to learn more about careers which captured their interest.
“I think it’s fantastic because a lot of the kids in the region are growing up on or around farms,” she said.
“It’s great to see the different areas they can go to beyond their family’s farms, and the different areas a career in the dairy industry can lead them to.
“You speak to some of the supervisors and other workshop holders who have all said they’ve learnt a lot seeing different industries and networking opportunities.”