Initiatives for Primary Schools
NSSS has also initiated collaboration with entities to target the primary school sector such as the Nursing Services Directorate on a project entitled ‘Nursing Now Campaign’. Nurses from the Nursing Directorate delivered sessions with Year 5 students from the Primary sector of both state and non-state schools. Activities were held with the idea to send positive messages to students about the importance of health care on an individual level but also to create awareness/positive perceptions of health care careers from an early age.
More than 600 boys and girls participated in the competition X’tixtieq issir la tikber? organised by the Office of the Principal Permanent Secretary in collaboration with the National School Support Services.
The prize giving ceremony was organised on Saturday, 29th May. All submissions to the competition were being exposed in a careers exhibition, in the basement at Castille. All students had the opportunity to spend some time at the place of work related to the career of their interest.
In the case of students interested in a career in education, a number of workshops were organised on 5th June, with the aim of exposing students to career opportunities in the area. Workshops were held in Gozo College, Victoria Primary School, Maria Regina College, Qawra Primary School and St Thomas More College, M’Scala St Joachim Primary School. Students were encouraged to explore what makes teaching a rewarding and fulfilling career. For more information visit link Edukazzjoni Facebook page.
Initiatives for Middle Schools
Organisation of the My Journey Fair for all Year 8 students and their parents/legal guardians in collaboration with the Ministry for Education and Employment
The My Journey National Fair brings together students and their parents/legal guardians to a national fair to expose them on the various option subjects on offer to State Secondary Year 8 students. The Fair is an empowering and potentially eye-opening experience for students with the aim of exposing them about future prospects. It informs students about the different learning paths – academic, vocational and applied in order to become aware about the different career paths available when choosing these subjects. This is done through the setting up of stands manned by Education Officers; Heads of Departments and Subject Teachers of the subjects on offer. Career guidance is also available throughout the fair to support students to make an informed choice.
The Explore more project and Web portal
As part of the implementation of My Journey (http://www.myjourney.edu.mt/), a new career guidance platform (http://www.exploremoreproject.eu was launched in December 2018. This interactive platform aims to facilitate career choices for secondary school students. During their secondary education, students need to choose a number of subjects to focus their studies on and which will pave the way for their professional choices later on in life. The information is presented in an interactive way so that students interact with the information. Language which is age appropriate is in Maltese and English. Through focused research, all available information was channelled to one platform and includes a series of job profiles, videos portraying ‘a day in the life of’, giving students a better idea of what the job they are aspiring for is all about and a quiz to help students explore their preferred learning path and preferred subject choices.
Initiatives for Senior Schools
During Year 9-10 students are offered a number of career orientation visits to different sectors such as the ICT, finance, health, tourism, manufacturing and the science sectors amongst others. Education Officers (Career Guidance) in collaboration with the career guidance teachers coordinate with national entities for the organisation of these visits and ensure that a variety of visits are offered so that students’ different interests and abilities are catered for. The aim of these career orientation visits is for students to become aware of the different employment sectors, to start becoming familiar with places of work and to see a link between the subjects they are studying at school and their future aspirations. Schools decide which career orientation visits their students will attend, depending on the students’ interests and aspirations.