Safeguarding the future conference - Canberra, 23-24 May 2024

School To Work: Discovering Work Webinar – Replay and Resources

Thank you for your interest in the School to Work Project and for registering to attend this on-demand event. This page houses the webinar that was designed for students in Years 9 and 10.

On this page, you’ll find

  • the replay of our August 2021 webinar
  • a selection of resources that we hope you’ll find helpful.

Important: All of the references that were referenced in the video have been added to the page below the video. We will not be sending these resources by email as was stated in some of the series videos.

You have until 5:00 PM AEDT on Sunday, 21 November to review the replays and resources.

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Return to the School to Work Webinars On-Demand Hub Page


Webinar Recording

Please consider watching this with your young person and begin a discussion about what they imagine for themselves in the future.

Presentation Slides

Download the Presentation Slides (PDF, 5 MB)

Key Messages from the Webinar

Key messages from the presentation

Making a Start

The Good Life

An infographic showing some of the good things in life

Vision

The vision of a positive life can become a compass to navigate towards a rich and varied life that includes meaningful employment.

Clarity of Vision – Wendy Stroeve

In this video, Wendy Stroeve explains the importance of having a clear vision about the kind of life a person with disability wants to achieve.

  • Playing time: 15 minutes, 8 seconds

Vision Statements

A vision statement for Rhiannon

Vision statement for Jack

Explore some more examples of Vision Statements

Vision of a Typical Life

Image comparing typical life experiences to segregated ones

Customised Employment

The Hiring Chain

  • Playing time: 1 minute, 44 seconds

Key Messages

  • Notice that the power in this video was that the people with disability were employed one at a time in each business. People with disability were not employed alongside other people with disability in the same workplace. Such a grouping can adversely affect perceptions.
  • Change happens when people are seen in a valued role. This is true
    • for the person
    • for others with disability
  • Employing people with disability changes societal expectations about their competence
  • It’s important to pay attention to the person’s image and to showcase their competence
  • Roles beget roles

Discovering The Person

  • Playing time: 2 minutes, 24 seconds

This video is an example of an interest that has morphed into a business. Often, a person’s spinning to non-verbal status becomes the focus of everyone’s attention and affects perceptions of competence. In Brad’s case, his family focused on his attributes. As a result, a valued role developed.

Discovery

We mentioned a template that you can use as a starting point to guide yourself through the Discovery process during this section. You can download that here:

Cultivating Employment Opportunities

Identify attributes, interests, and strengths of the person

  • What is important to the person?
  • What do they get excited about?
  • What do they like to do in their spare time? (interests)
  • What are they great at? (strengths)
  • What are they intrinsically motivated by?
  • What type of environment do they prefer?
  • What preferences do they have?

Use what you know about the person’s attributes, interests, and strengths to brainstorm possible workplace links.

In the example below,

  • Cutting is the interest of the person
  • In blue are some work roles that involve cutting
  • In red are the names of some workplaces that employ people in the roles
  • In green are some people known to the family who might have connections to the workplaces

Butcher paper used to brainstorm possible work roles related to cutting

This next example is a brainstorm of possible workplace links related to cooking. It’s more helpful to dig deeper to find out what cooking is the prime interest or motivator for the person. For example, cutting, mixing, hosting a gathering, enjoyment of colour or taste might be the underlying factor for the individual.

Brainstorming possible work roles around cooking

Discover opportunities outside the school gate

Work Experience Success

  • This video explores how to use work experience to assess the student’s skills and interests
  • Playing time: 6 minutes, 42 seconds

Engaging Employment Supports

Engaging employment support

Questions for employment service providers

Ongoing Supports and Career Development

Exact Instructions Challenge

This video offers a lighthearted look into an important concept: the effective communication of instructions.

  • Playing time: 6 minutes, 44 seconds

Capturing the Learning

How to capture the learning from work experience

Example of capturing the learning from work experience

Ideas for Part-time work

We mentioned the website Airtasker as a place to find paid tasks that young people might be able to do.

Other Resources Mentioned in the Webinar

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Please complete the survey now

Please Support these Local Enterprises that were mentioned in this presentation

Events That May Be of Interest

If you are not already receiving our digital newsletters, please consider joining our mailing list so that you receive information about interesting events like the following:

Get That Good Life! Conference On-Demand

Our annual conference was held in October 2021. You can still register to watch replays of most sessions. They will be available on-demand and for free until Sunday, November 29, 2021.

Learn more and register here.

What else would you like to know about Discovering Work?

Is there a topic that you’d like to explore in greater depth in future webinars and workshops? Please let us know by sending an email to Fiona McIntosh: fiona@imaginemore.org.au