Northern Try a Trade

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The Northern "Try a Trade" event ran for the first time in the north in 2007 to showcase jobs in skill shortage areas to young people at the Broadmeadows Town Hall.

Though the event is called ‘Try a Trade’ the interpretation of trade goes far beyond the concept of traditional male oriented trades to equally engage both males and females. Students experience a wide range of industry areas such as bricklaying, tiling, plumbing, automotive, hairdressing and beauty, manufacturing and aviation, electrical, air conditioning and refrigeration, furnishing, horticulture, health, information communication and technology, children’s services, visual merchandising, fashion and printing. The activities were delivered by Kangan Institute, Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE and RMIT.

The Northern "Try A Trade" event in 2011 attracted over 1500 students from 36 secondary schools in the Northern region schools of Hume, Whittlesea, Banyule, Darebin, Moreland, Yarra and Nillumbik.

The event was held over two days  (17 and 18 May) with Year 10-12 students attending on the first day and Year 7-9 students on the second day. Councilor Rex Griffin the Mayor of Whittlesea officially opened the event.

Description
"Try a Trade" is an interactive event, based on simple hands on tasks and activities in trade and other occupational categories in emerging industries to allow students to try activities related to that industry. It is designed to raise awareness among young people in an enjoyable and engaging manner thereby laying the foundation for future choices in their education, training and employment pathways.

A curriculum package has been developed to accompany the event which is delivered as a unit of work in participating schools both before and after the event.

The event conducted over 2 days:

Day One
Day one featured the Year 10-12 students with the focus on providing further information on how to gain an apprenticeship.

Day Two
Day two featured the Year 7-10 students with a focus on the hands on aspects aswell as learning about the different trades.

Twenty one (21) different stalls provided activities over the 2 days. The activities were supervised by qualified tradespeople and trainers from local TAFE Colleges, along with representatives from a Apprenticeship Plus to explain the process of '' how to get an apprenticeship''

Students comments about what they learnt at the Try a Trade event:

  • I learnt there were a few other trades I had never heard of before today
  • I learnt about the different trades and the steps to get into them
  • I learnt how much fun trades can be
  •  I learnt how to lay bricks
  • I got to experience more trades and widen my choices
  • I learnt there are lots of different options to choose from

Partners Involved
The event was managed by a regional strategic steering committee who appointed a project officer to coordinate the event. 

Steering Committee Member Organisations: Inner Northern LLEN, Banyule/ Nillumbik LLEN, Hume/ Whittlesea LLEN, RMIT, NMIT and Kangan Institute.

Sponsors: Banyule City Council, Hume City Council, Moreland City Council, Whittlesea City Council and Apprenticeships Plus.

Contact person
For more information contact Andrew Horgan (INLLEN - Partnership Broker) ahorgan@inllen