Career-driven: FCJ Benalla students Ellen Sambell, Meggan Thompson, Eleanor Pritchard, Jasmin Garrett, Georgia O’Brien and Abby Hammond at the breakfast.
Photo by
Isabelle Harris
Young women from FCJ College Benalla attended an International Women’s Day career breakfast for young women on March 10.
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The event was hosted by the Zonta Club of Wangaratta, which is an international organisation promoting women’s rights and working towards gender equality.
The breakfast is now in its 16th year and is designed to stimulate conversations about careers and encourage young women to think seriously about their futures.
Students from the area were seated at career-based tables for informal conversations with mentors from careers and industries of interest, such as engineering, medicine, policing or communications.
Speakers who have been educated in the Wangaratta region also spoke about their career paths and achievements and gave advice to the young women present.
FCJ Benalla year 11 student Eleanor Pritchard said events such as these raised young women’s awareness of career options they may not have been aware of.
“A lot of young girls might not know that they can go into different career paths because they might not see it that much, but it’s good to talk about,” Eleanor said.
“Just listening to the different mentors and guest speakers and listening to their story and how they got to that job was good.”
Focused conversation: Students seated at career tables had the opportunity to connect with people working in their areas of interest to stimulate conversation and connection.
Photo by
Isabelle Harris
Another year 11 student at FCJ, Georgia O’Brien, said she had been waiting to attend the event since Year 9 because of the career opportunities available.
“I just thought it would be a really good opportunitiy to see what other women do in fields that aren’t as talked about, like STEM for women, especially because it’s more of a male-dominated industry,” Georgia said.
“It’s definitely made me feel like there’s a lot more opportunities out there now, because we’re always told to pick something and stick to that.
“But what people don’t tell you is that there’s a lot more doors and windows you can open into careers.”
FCJ year 11 learning leader Erin Crook said the networking and experience-based learning aspects the students got from the event were incredibly important.
“The girls today picked up that you don’t need to know what you want to be right now, you know there’s so many avenues to change your career path,” Ms Crook said.
‘It’s especially important at the moment with COVID impacting things like work experience over the last few years, it gives them an opportunity to meet and mingle with mentors.“
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