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Issue 50 – June 2014 – QUEEN MARGARET CALLING
From the Principal
Every year at Senior Prize-giving we farewell Year 13. Typically there
are 75 to 80 girls in the final year of school and, as with preceding
QMC leavers, the vast majority will move on to tertiary study with a
few broadening their experience by taking a ‘Gap Year’. The variety of
courses available at New Zealand and overseas universities is dazzling;
those girls who choose well and work hard should be well rewarded.
Compared with the limited vocational choices available to previous
generations of women, these girls are indeed fortunate so long as they
have the knowledge, skills and attitude to make the most of the oppor-
tunities offered.
T
he ‘TeachersOnlyDay’ at the endof the first termwas entitled
Stepping Out to Stepped Out, Careers and Future Pathways
at QMC
, and focussed on the opportunities available today
in tertiary education and employment. Organised by teacher Paula
Turner, the Tertiary Pathways and Careers Coordinator, a new
position created this year, this involved presentations by academics
at Victoria University and also two from QMC Board Members; one
a recruitment specialist, the other, a CEO. The key messages from all
of these speakers were:
• a broad-based education focusing on knowledge, creativity
and innovation is required to help us adapt to rapid change
• skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM subjects) are in demand
• a positive, proactive, goal-oriented attitude is essential as
are the ‘soft skills’ of knowing how to relate, communicate
and work with others
• Generation Z will change jobs more often and personal
development will be viewed as a continuous process to
meet tomorrow’s challenges
• employment as we know it presently, often working 9am
-5pm in a physical workplace, is being reshaped in diverse
ways by digitalisation and automation. The concept of a
‘lifelong job’ has disappeared. There will be a more flexible,
more mobile and more connected but far less secure work
world.
Prior to the event girls throughout the school were asked: What
do you want to do when you are older? In the Junior School, Stella
wanted to be an author, Annalise, a vet and Sophie, a dolphin
teacher. Middle School student Millie commented that being a
palaeontologist would be interesting and Georgia liked the idea
of being a doctor and cutting people open. Eden thought owing a
successful business like Hello Kitty would be fun. Senior School
students were considering a range of options including being a
doctor specialising in sports medicine, zoologist, engineer, chef,
teacher, entertainment journalist in Hollywood and doing aid work
in Africa.
What an exciting future awaits these girls when they ‘step out’
from the College.
Carol Craymer
Past Pupils, Michelle Too, Jessica Paliaret, Allanah Avollon, Courtney Yule, Megan
Greenaway and Sarah Novak, at school during the Staff PD.
2013 Students' Degrees
B.Des
B. Arts
B. Comm LLB
B. Health
BE
Science
BEd
Architecture B. Pharmacy Vet
Other
