Gateway at Aquinas

In 2008 Aquinas College joined over 300 secondary schools nationwide in offering, to 15 senior students in Years 12 and 13, the opportunity to participate in the Gateway Programme. The Gateway Programme is designed to strengthen the pathway for students from school to workplace learning. It caters for the full range of students and offers structured workplace opportunities whereby students are able to attain specific vocational skills that lead to future employment.

It is NOT work experience where students taste different occupations to make a career decision. Instead, students have a rigorous set of criteria to follow and are expected to earn credits towards possible career training. A formal arrangement is set up with an actual workplace, for a sustained period of time, with clear understanding about the knowledge and skills to be attained as well as the Unit Standards/Achievement against which they will be assessed. Students complete the work placement and then have their learning in the workplace assessed against the Unit/Achievement Standards from the National Qualification Framework as part of their current programme of study. A contract is negotiated which includes a work programme of about 60 - 100 hours of work placement, assessment tasks relevant to the position, established assessment criteria and expectations of both the student and the employer.

Students are not paid for their participation in the workplace, so it is a good opportunity for employers to assess potential employees before they hire them. Each of the students involved in the programme have commented how helpful it has been in discovering their career pathway.