Mudgee High School’s Link Program brought together students, their parents and work placement employers to celebrate 2015 on Wednesday night with a dinner at the Mudgee Golf Club.
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Program coordinator Melissa Date said it provides work placement as an alternative for students who may not finish their high school education through the traditional method.
“This is the fourth group to move through the Link program and it still continues to be significantly funded by Glencore,” she said.
“This year we had 25 students start and 22 finish the program successfully and within those 22 we had three who achieved apprenticeships and one whose picked up a school-based traineeship for next year.
“The majority of students have participated at least once in work experience and a number of them have stayed with the same business all year, while some of them changed businesses from term to term.”
This year the program tied in with TAFE, which Ms Date said gave the students more opportunities and credentials.
“All of the group this year had the opportunity to do TAFE, which has been something new thanks to our funding,” she said.
“Each kid has a different experience and a different successful story.”
“They all work for a Certificate II in ‘Skills for the Workplace and Vocational Pathways’, and we had a group doing Hospitality and one doing Construction.
“It means that they’re credentialed at the end of it and it can provide them with two units in Year 11, which acts as a bit of a safety net.
“It gives them great opportunities, like the hospitality group have done things like being the caterers for VIP functions that TAFE have run and run the cafeteria for TAFE employees and students at the campus.
“And the construction students have built a range of projects and a lot of concrete slab building and form work using a range of skills which will be utilised in those areas.”
The guest speaker at the dinner was Jennifer Browning, who was employed in 2011 as an ABC National News reporter for radio, which over the last four years has developed into both television and radio.
She reports on a range of sports, but her favourites are NRL and Rugby and her favourite medium is television where she often makes live reports from sporting events.
Jennifer spoke about her career as a reporter and her journey to her current position, emphasising that hard work is the primary reason behind her success and that believing in yourself is important. She encouraged students to pursue their passions and not give up after knock-backs, that determination is worth it, and taking chances - even when you think it’s impossible - is vital because you never know what might happen.
Ms Date said that the “Link” dinner is an opportunity for students, parents and everyone involved to celebrate the year that was all together.
“For us it’s a mini-graduation ceremony. It’s a way of recognising the students’ achievements with those people involved in various elements of the program,” she said.
“It’s also a chance for their parents to see the success of their kids.
“And a chance for us as program coordinators to acknowledge the level of input from everybody, how four/five different elements come together just to make this so successful.
“Each kid has a different experience and a different successful story.”
