Student Support Groups

7 Transition to post-school options

A student’s final years of school require a planned progression into participation in adult and community life through further education, training or employment. This is the fundamental goal of the Student Support Group (SSG).

In order to establish a range of options, transitions should be part of the whole-school approach to career development from Year 7 to Year 12 so that students, parent/carer(s), and teachers have explored choices and feel comfortable about the decisions to be made from an early age. Transition planning should encompass 3 major areas of adult life — education and training, employment, and independent living.

Successful transition planning is based on a partnership between parent/carer(s) and school, and involves considering the current abilities of the student, the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours a student will need to operate successfully in the post-school environment, and the provision of appropriate strategies to ensure the needed skills are developed.

By establishing appropriate linkages to service providers such as Workplace Learning Coordinators, employment placement officers or higher education disability liaison officers, and inviting representatives to SSG meetings, agencies can increasingly become part of the planning process. This ensures a seamless transition to the most appropriate post-school option.

Career Education Funding is provided to Victorian government secondary schools including specialist schools and English language schools, to provide career education activities to all students in Years 7 to 12.

All students in Years 9 to 12, including students with disability in both mainstream and specialist schools, are required to have an individual annual career action plan which is linked to any personalised learning and support plans as a means to make a successful transition through the senior years of education, to further education, training or employment.

All students should have access to targeted career education and support services appropriate to their needs, including student welfare coordinators, student support services and community-based agencies or programs including mentoring and workplace learning.

For further information please refer to Career education.

In addition, Strengthened Pathways Planning Guidelines provide advice for school staff on careers and transition planning for young people with disability, and brings together information about Strengthened Pathways Planning in schools, and the broad range of options available to them when they leave school.

For further information please refer to Career education and workplace learning for students with disability.

Career Action Plans

An important element of the Victorian Careers Curriculum Framework is the Career Action Plan. Career Action Plans reflect a student’s increased learning, building on previous planning and identified future actions. Goal setting activities are included in a student’s Career Action Plan. Support for targeted groups, including Guidelines and customised Career Action Plans for young people with disabilities, are available on the Framework website.

Career Action Plans should complement, not replace, personalised learning and support Planning and the IEP. To ensure consistency between planning documents, it is recommended that careers practitioners, teachers and trainers work with members of the SSG on the goal setting component of the IEP. For further information about the Framework refer to Career Action Plans.