Employer Engagement / Student Work

Experience: the KIOSC approach

Kate Kent Evans
19 September 2016

Ms. Kate Kent Evans

Director, KIOSC Learning Center
Swinburne University
Melbourne, Australia
Employer Engagement/
Student Work Experience:
the KIOSC approach

Connecting you
to your future

Collaboration between schools

Partnership with tertiary provider
Strong links with local council
Significant engagement with industry
Access to high-end equipment/technology

KIOSC program progression

Years
7-8

Discovery multidisciplinary programs

Career awareness, real-world scenarios & problem-solving
Contexts and problems developed in consultation with industry
Collaboration, communication

Discovery multidisciplinary programs and specific programs in STEM

Career development and Taster Days; exploring fields of work, exposure to industry-standard
equipment

Year 910

Your Future at Work Program students complete a project in a workplace,

with industry mentors

VETis courses
VCE/VCAL enhancement
Industry tours & structured workplace learning

Years
11-12

Industry Pathways program industry-based workplace projects for VETiS students

Your Future at Work Program

Example: A_Space

2 teams of 4 students
worked at A_Space,
a local manufacturer
of high-quality fitness
and play equipment.

Your Future at Work Program

They worked through the full
process of preparing a client
brief: Site analysis, needs
surveying, preparing scope
of works, choosing elements
and materials, 2D layout
design, 3D visualisation, and
the development of a
professional proposal.

Your Future at Work Program

A_Space provided mentoring and training at every stage, and
encouraged the students to also develop skills of teamwork,
persistence, time management and conflict resolution
Student comments:
I learnt more
this week than
Ive learnt the
I got a really good
rest of the
idea of what the
year!
working world is
really like
http://aspaceto.com.au/manufacturing/

A_Space comments:

This was a wonderful

experience we are so
proud of what these
students have achieved!

Industry Pathways Program:

Example GP Graders
Year 12 students from the Engineering Studies course
worked to design an automated cherry sorting machine. GP
Graders, a leading supplier of fruit sorting equipment,
mentored the students through the whole design process.
The students used mathematics, CAD, modelling and
problem-solving processes to design and test their solution.
Students commented that it was
a complex and difficult task, and
that the experience had really
helped them to understand the
engineering and manufacturing
industry.

Conceptual thinking

and

hands-on experience.

Our work
comes to life!

KIOSC is now working on scaling up these projects.

Industries which participated this year are sharing
their experience through their contacts and industry
organisations, and the local regional Economic
Development team is actively seeking more
industries to participate next year.
This years projects are being written up as long-term
projects which can be done in schools or at KIOSC,
using Skype, Google Docs and email to enable
mentoring and project guidance to be done in a less
intensive way. (There will be at least 2 industry site
visits in these schemes of work)

Thank You
Kate Kent Evans
Phone: 0402457910
E-mail: kkentevans@swin.edu.au