TESTING the waters in her chosen field of interest not only helped former VETiS student Brianna Starick decide on a future career path, but also resulted in full time employment.
Opting to complete VCAL over VCE because she “had no idea” what career path she wanted to take post-school, Brianna, 19 went on to start a VET course which then merged into the current
VETiS course.
Completing the Certificate 2 in Community Services on a Wednesday, over the course of 2 years, Brianna was able to gain a better understanding of which field she preferred; children’s services or disability services.
“I love kids. I always knew I wanted to work with them and was leaning towards the disability sector,” Brianna said. “However, even though my brother has a disability, I thought I might struggle
working with severely disabled children, so it was good to have the opportunity to try both fields and see whether I preferred children’s or disability services,” she said.
Describing the program as “well set out” and “easy to understand”, Brianna said her tutor, Dianne, was “awesome”. “Dianne was so easy to talk to and gave us the chance to interact with a lot of
people from varied fields,” she said. “I really enjoyed the entire course and got a much better understanding of psychology, in particular, and some other areas.”
Now in her second year as a Teacher’s Aide at Horsham Primary School, Brianna, who works with students from Prep-Grade Six with a low IQ or behavioural concerns, said the course helped a lot in her role. “While I was completing VET I was able to do some work placement at the school, working with the Prep students for a year,” she said. “That also gave me a bit of an advantage when it came to applying for my job.”
“The course was a lot of hard work, but it has been great to see it pay off and have the training click into place.” Previously undertaking a professional development day on intervention programs at Horsham Special School, Brianna was so inspired by the training that she implemented a similar program at her school. “I was very proud to be able to introduce, and run, our Balls and Ladders program which assists students with their hand, eye and feet coordination,” she said.
Born and raised in Horsham, Brianna was excited to learn that she was being offered a 7 year contract at the school recently, and said she hopes to go on and complete a teaching degree in the future.
Opting to
