April to June is an important time for middle-to-senior high school students as they make key decisions that impact their lives.
From an aspiring students’ perspective, here’s how it goes.
In Year 7, students are beginning to settle into high school when suddenly mathematics looks very different. Research highlights Year 7 as requiring intervention as students lose confidence in their abilities.
By Year 10, they must make their subject choices for HSC years. There is pressure to take easier subjects that deliver higher ATAR scores with most having no idea of pre-requisites for degree courses.
University Admissions Centre’s earlier opening date of June requires Year 12 students to look deeper into university courses.
Based on the timeline above, April to June becomes crunch time for school STEM engagement. For Engineers Australia Sydney, that has well and truly been the case.
Discover Engineering Days were held in Chatswood, ANSTO/Lucas Heights, Parramatta and Wagga Wagga. These were full-day programs which including engineering activity, information on degree and alternative pathways, closing with presentations, and panel discussions featuring student, graduate and professional Engineers. In total, 541 school students from Years 7-10 attended our four Discover Engineering Days.
Cochlear Autumn School of Engineering welcomed 80 Year 11-12 students from across Sydney with regional students attending for the first time from Taree, Tamworth, Nowra and Coffs Harbour. It is an intensive four-day program introducing students to Sydney’s key Engineering Universities, and to four leading Engineering organisations including Cochlear, TfNSW, ANTSO and RAAF Richmond.
Student feedback indicates that 78% will be definitely applying for Engineering degrees in 2020, with 12% potentially applying but still unsure.
Pilot screenings of ‘Dream Big’ movie followed by ‘Burning Questions’ panel discussion were delivered at Frensham School in Mittagong and to five Blue Mountains and Central West schools at Charles Sturt University. 225 students participated.
The aim now is to roll out across Sydney Division to school clusters, targeting school students, their parents, carers and teachers.
The first ‘Experience It!’ program this year, for girls from Years 7-10, will be held in the first week of July at the University of Wollongong. Reaching a capacity of 180 enthusiastic engineers-to-be, this program acts as an intervention of sorts by the eight engineering universities plus the likes of SMEC, AECOM and RTAA.
Engineering Summer School opened to regional students across NSW on 25 June, and after just five days, 30 students had already registered to attend.
During the 2018-2019 financial year, Engineers Australia Sydney has engaged directly with 1736 school students, not including the hundreds of students we engaged with our careers fairs or expos across the board.