Fitzroy High School

Worlds of Work long-term impact case study

Fitzroy High School 2007-2010

Fitzroy High School has participated in WOW since its 2007 pilot. Speaking in March 2010 the careers teacher at Fitzroy High posited the rhetorical question, “What long-lasting impact does participating in WOW have on our students?”  The students who participated in WOW in 2007 had finished Year 12 in 2009. She identified that all of those students transitioned onto tertiary education, except one who was doing a pilot cadetship. Furthermore, the teacher identified that those students had followed a wide variety of pathways and that they had “followed their dreams”.

One specific example she gave was of a very shy student who was convinced during the WOW week to admit to his dream of being an architect. Upon finishing Year 12, he applied for an architecture course for which there were 25 applicants for every available position. Applicants for the course had to present their folio in an interview. He and his teacher believe that the communication skills he learnt through the WOW program were instrumental in his success in gaining admission to the course.

In interviewing a younger cohort of students currently in Year 12, who had completed the WOW program in 2008, students reported that they still felt the impact of the program. Two of the themes students reported as staying with them most strongly were those of communication and building social networks. One student identified improved communication skills as the most significant change he had experience as a result of the WOW program, particularly highlighting an improved understanding of the importance of being able to engage people and how communicating with adults differs from communicating with young people. He identified these skills as the ability to self-assess one’s own body language and to “reciprocate” someone else’s body language to make them feel comfortable.

Another student reported the direct impact of the communication skills she’d acquired in the program on her ability to secure work experience for herself. This student, who is seeking to turn her passion for basketball into a career, also reported that as a result of WOW she had the courage to go up to a person from Basketball Australia, network with him, ask him for his email address and ask him if she could keep in touch with him in the future for the purposes of identifying opportunities for work and volunteering. This was a result of recognition that “If you have connections is easier to get jobs”.