19 Jul 2016
How good are our Marsden students - the importance of Work Experience cannot be under estimated:
Work Experience plays a large role in preparing students to understand career options and choices post school. The current generation of students are expected to go through about fourteen different career choices in their lifetime and schools are required to prepare them with the creative and innovative thinking skills required for success in the C21st.
Marsden's two Career Adviser, Mrs Hart and Mrs Hooper have utilised their experience and brilliantly provided students with many options. During Week 9 Term 2 the vast majority of Year 10 students opted for Work Experience. One local large international company, ORIX gave five of our students the fantastic opportunity to do work experience. The students were rotated through the areas of Finance, IT, Customer Service, Operations Management and General Business gaining the experience of how each section was linked to the others.
The reviews of our students from the Executive Assistant and her staff, including General Managers of each department, were incredibly supportive of the opportunities we are delivering at Marsden. The students were equally excited and enthusiastic about their time at the company and all of the amazing learning and social experiences they had whilst there. Most telling of all was how completely different their understanding of corporate business was compared to the idea of an 'office job' prior to their work experience placement. The five students were Elijah Atienza, Vincent Chu, Jack Wu, Sean Tran and Nic Hose. Several of the students demonstrated their appreciation by buying gifts of chocolates and doughnuts to thank their supervising teams.
One student the Executive Assistance (EA) detailed to Mrs Hooper in an email of gratitude was described on Thursday as being 'painfully shy' in nature but was completely in awe of his computer skills. Due to the student's shyness, the EA wasn't sure if he was actually enjoying the experience, but she needn't have worried as she describes on his last day, the student ‘brought in boxes of chocolates for the team supervising him the most and an individual thank you card each for each of us. Within each card was written things relevant to each of the team, some with direct quotes of things which had been said to him during the week. The cards were funny and heartfelt'. The EA added ‘He was also able to thank me verbally on behalf of himself and the school for the opportunity given to come here. I know how hard that would have been for him. I told him it's been like watching a flower open, day by day this week as he has become more comfortable. We all truly hope that he can continue to come out of his shell' … ‘The school should be proud of these young men. They have charmed us all and impressed us with their intellect and maturity'.
