At Ascham, every year our Year 10 students enjoy two weeks of compulsory Work Experience. This is an enriching and productive time that allows our students to experience life in the workforce and get a taste for the industries that interest them as possible career paths. Although the pandemic has disrupted programs over the last two years, this has not stopped our intrepid students from seeking out opportunities with the assistance of our Careers staff.
Over the summer holiday break this year, three of our students (now in Year 11) caught up on their missed Work Experience of 2021 by spend a week with major Sydney roads infrastructure project, WestConnex. Below, Genevieve Anderson, Sophia Peres and Christine Smith report on their great Work Experience week:
‘At the backend of the summer holidays, we had the great privilege of attending a week of work experience with WestConnex at the Rozelle Interchange, an opportunity not many students in our cohort were able to fulfill. WestConnex is Australia’s largest road infrastructure project of motorways, tunnels, bridges, traffic and digital management systems.
We were required to complete White Card training in advance and our schedule included a half-day induction at the Homebush Training Academy. During this week, we observed and worked with the Mechanical and Electrical engineering teams on the project. The staff shared their background, practical career advice and discussed trends in the industry such as mechatronics and robotics engineering.
One of our highlights of the week was the numerous site visits. The engineers took time to show us numerous features of the tunnel, including sub-stations, ventilation stations, cross-passages, the main-line tunnel and even the site where excavation was still occurring. The engineers showed us schematics and drawings allowing us to have a greater understanding of the structures we physically saw in the tunnel. The whole experience helped shed light on the opportunities available for women in construction and we all feel fortunate to have seen the future career options in Engineering.
We would like to thank the WestConnex team including the senior leadership team, site engineers, their HR staff, the Homebush Training Academy and our Careers Adviser Ms Sloan for arranging this fantastic opportunity. We strongly encourage everyone to do some work experience in any of the holidays, even if just for a few days, as it gives a great insight into industries.’
