Welcome to Your Pathway

Feature Articles Friday, 23 Oct 2020


Welcome to Your Pathway! The College is excited to announce a new initiative for 2021 aimed at assisting senior students in developing ideas around their future pathways. Your Pathway is determined by YOU! The new Your Pathway team are here to help you discover opportunities that are available to you now, while you're still in school, all the way through to graduation.

Your Pathway Team had a busy end to term 3 and we are keen to share with you what we have learnt and plans that we have in place for term 4.  But first, who makes up Your Pathway Team?   

  • Kris Naiker  - Assistant Principal Teaching and Learning Senior 
  • Jennifer Stevenson - Career Development Practitioner
  • Christie Richardson - Careers Support Officer 

We are all very excited about our new positions and looking forward to working together to develop Your Pathway to the future.Ever thought of becoming an Acoustic Analyst Submariner, Geospatial Intelligence Analyst, Carpenter or a Chef?  We are sure, like us, many of these careers are new to you.  But as we learnt the Australian Defence Force has endless opportunities available to those interested in a university or trade pathway.  We recently attended the defence careers nights and were informed of ways that you can sample the Australian Defence Force to see if it is the right fit for you.  A gap year can be completed in the Australian Defence Force with no commitment to enlist.  During this year you sample different trades or positions to assist you in making an educated decision about your future pathway.   Once the restrictions of COVID-19 are lifted, the Australian Defence Force is keen to recommence their work experience or camp program, they offer to school age students.  To ensure Mary MacKillop students are aware of all their career options we have asked the Career Promotion Team from the Toowoomba defence force office to come and speak to our year 9, 10 and 11 students on Tuesday 20 October.  Be on the lookout for more details about this event. 

Your Pathways Team also attended the Qantas Group Pilot Academy at Wellcamp Airport.  This academy is a joint venture between Qantas and Fta as the training provider. Opening in September 2019 the academy plans to build a long-term talent pipeline not just for Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar, but for the industry more broadly.  Beyond COVID-19 it is predicted that 790 000 additional pilots will be required worldwide over the next 20 years.  The facility at Wellcamp is of world standard, where students are trained in single engine Diamond DA40 or DA42 multi-engines to complete Diploma of Aviation – Commercial Pilot Licence, Advanced Diploma of Aviation and Diploma of Aviation Instrument Rating.  It was delightful to listen to current students speak of the passion they have for learning to become pilots and how exhilarating their first solo flight was.  So, if you have a hidden dream of becoming an aviator, come and see how you can take advantage of this sensational facility right here in Toowoomba. 

We understand that for a lot of our students the first step into the World of Work is applying for your first job.  Your Pathway Team has orgainised for a professional resume writer to hold a workshop for our year 9 and 10 students to ensure you have the best structured and most eye-catching resume in the Toowoomba area.  On Monday 23 November Life After School will teach us, what employers are looking for, both on paper and beyond the paperwork.  They will demonstrate how to communicate these during an interview and provide us with a template to complete our resumes.  Life After School have kindly offered to stay after school to assist students to compile their resumes. Year 11 and 12 students are most welcome to attend the two hour after school session.  A big thank you to the parent community for their support with this opportunity.  Please be on the lookout for more details about this day.