Waihi College has many opportunities for students to explore their options in a number of ways, including:

  • Vocational Education and Training
  • Careers – University and Technical Institutes
  • Jump Start Driving Programme

We post regularly in our Latest News section: Latest News. There you can find the most recent Careers & Future Pathway information, so check back regularly. 

We also do regular Careers Newsletters which are emailed out weekly to whanau and our Year 12 & 13 students.  We also keep a copy below for you to view any time:

Vocational Education and Training

Vocational Education and Training gives opportunities to our students both inside and outside the classroom helping them make decisions on their future career pathways.

 

Careers

The ultimate aim of career education and guidance is to equip students to develop their careers throughout their lives. People continue to learn to do this long after they leave school, but what they learn at school is a crucial start.

 

For more information about these categories, please check out the drop down menus below.

Vocational Education and Training

Vocational Education and Training gives opportunities to our students both inside and outside the classroom helping them make decisions on their future career pathways.

 

Our Vocational Education and Training Coordinator is Carolyn Graveson

 

WINTEC Trades Academy

Year 11 to 13 students are able to attend WINTEC Trades Academy one day a week.  This involves travelling to Kopu or Hamilton with transport provided.

See below for more information regarding courses available.

Check out the WINTEC courses here.

 

 

GATEWAY

Students in Years 12 and 13 have the opportunity to spend time in work places in the community to gain experience in career possibilities.

This can be for one semester or for a full year.

 

POLICE STUDIES

This course is held every Tuesday with the support of the NZ Police. There is an emphasis on fitness, community service and achieving unit standard’s set by the Police.

It is available for students in Year’s 12 and 13 only.

 

OUTSIDE PROVIDERS

PCTI

Pacific Coast Training Technical Institute facilitate the following courses as an outside provider for our students:

  • Apiculture – 1 year course in the study of bees and the apiculture
  • Food Manufacturing   – 1 year course in the study of food manufacturing

These courses are available to students in Year’s 11 to 13

 

MITO

Waihi College students have the opportunity to achieve micro credentials while still at school in the following areas:

  • Automotive
  • Automotive Engineering
  • Collision repair and finishing
  • Road Transport
  • Mining and Quarrying
  • Industrial Textile fabrication

 

BCITO

This is a Pre Apprenticeship preparation course that is available for students in Year’s 12 to 13 that are looking to go into the building industry.

Careers (University & Technical Institutes)

Our Careers Adviser is Carolyn Graveson.  We also have the Waihi College Future Pathways Facebook page to keep you informed.

Also – check out this link which takes you to an awesome website with loads of information about universities in New Zealand and what they offer. There are also a few hard copies of this upstairs in the Library in the Careers Corner.

https://www.thinkingaboutuni.nz/

Preparing for a Life Outside of School

The ultimate aim of career education and guidance is to equip students to develop their careers throughout their lives. People continue to learn to do this long after they leave school, but what they learn at school is a crucial start. At school students need to learn to make considered decisions and act accordingly. They need to learn how to become resilient career managers.

Recent international research and practice have identified a set of career management competencies that provide a framework for designing career education and guidance programmes in schools. Each competency involves a set of understandings, skills and attitudes required to successfully manage life, learning and work. I would encourage you to talk to your children about these at home. These competencies are grouped into 4 areas as follows:

  • Developing self-awareness – competencies that enable young people to understand themselves and their influences on them.
  • Exploring opportunities – competencies that enable young people to investigate opportunities in learning and work.
  • Deciding and acting – competencies that enable young people to make and adjust their plans, to manage change and transition, and take appropriate action.
  • Transitions – competencies that enable young people to transition smoothly too, through and from secondary school to further education or employment.

Useful Links

Scholarships Information

The team at MoneyHub, a personal finance website, updated our comprehensive guide to school leaver university scholarships extensively for 2020’s Year 13 students.

https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/

At Waihi College, we provide career education programmes across the whole school – from Year 7-13. The programmes are age-specific.

  • At Years 7 & 8 the focus is on students exploring their personal skills, interests and attributes and beginning to link these to an early sense of “career”. They also begin to prepare for the big transition to Year 9.
  • The focus at Years 9 & 10 is to continue exploring personal skills and interests and also to begin to develop skills in locating, understanding and using career information. They also begin to prepare for the big transition to senior school and NCEA.
  • Students in Years 11-13 start to develop skills in choosing subjects that will support their career options as well as gaining knowledge of the qualifications, skills and attitude requirements of specific career options. Some students will learn this “on the job” through Gateway placements and trades academies. In addition to this Year 12s and 13s begin to utilise support networks for the transition into further education, training or work.

Other Opportunities

Waihi College has lots of opportunities for kids, other than just those listed in our Culture, Sport, Academic and Service sections.  Here are just a few:

Pin’d Creative

If you would like to find out more, please chat to your student’s teacher.

Jump Start Driving Lessons

The Waihi College Jumpstart Driving program is in collaboration with OceanaGold. The program is intended to help Waihi College students obtain their restricted licence by providing weekly driving lessons. Driving lessons are held and organised during school times and considerations will be made when allocating time slots to the student, to ensure the same subject isn’t consistently missed. Alternatively, there are lessons timetabled outside of school times for the students who cannot afford time out of school

The lessons are free to the student, thanks to OceanaGold for sponsoring the Jumpstart car and  the community volunteers, who are police vetted and trained through the Bluelight Navigator program. Lessons are 45 minutes long and students are taken on different routes around Waihi and surrounding areas.

Thanks to community donations Waihi College is able to offer one professional, paid driving lesson free to the student. This lesson is taken by Gavin Buchanan at AA and will be booked when our volunteer navigators believe the student is competent and  ready to sit their Restricted licence test. This professional lesson with AA gives students extra confidence to increase the likelihood of passing their driving test. When the navigators believe the student is ready for this AA lesson, students are required to come and see Lauren to book an appointment with AA.

Students will need to pay for the restricted license test, when they sit it.

The lesson times are in the notices, students need to check to see when/if they have a lesson each week, and if they are unavailable, make sure to let either Mrs Graveson or Lauren know ASAP.

Students that don’t have a timetabled lesson that week are on a waitlist. In the case timetabled students can’t make their lesson, waitlisted students will need to fill the available spot. Therefore every student that is on the Jumpstart list is expected to bring their licence every Wednesday and Thursday.

For more information, contact our Future Pathways staff as found in the Staff Directory.