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The Gateway Programme in a big city school

Esther Harvey

Lynfield College�Auckland

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The “Who”

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It takes a village to raise a child.

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Key Stakeholders

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School

Community

Employers

Training Providers

Business

ITOs

(Apprenticeships, etc)

Parents

Careers / Gateway

Teachers / Staff

Board of Trustees

TEIs

(Universities & Polytechnics)

Private Training Establishments

Industry

Government & Local Authorities

Ministry of Education

Tertiary Education Commission

Local Council

Senior Leadership

Iwi / Aiga

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The “How”

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How do we do Gateway at Lynfield College?

Lynfield College Gateway Programme is offered alongside mainstream school subjects.

At Course Selection time students select their course subjects for the next year and apply for Gateway at the same time. This involves a selection process, much like preparing for a job interview:

– emailing or seeing the Gateway Coordinator and requesting an application form

completing the form (by themselves) and returning it, at which time they are assigned an interview time
attend a “job interview” (Career counselling interview to understand them better)
At this “job interview” we talk about their values, aptitudes and interests and begin tailoring an individualised Gateway Programme for them.

Purpose of this process is to encourage students to think about their future, whether it is in 2 years’ time, 5 years’ time or 10 years’ time as well as gain some job preparation skills.

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Filling the Kete of knowledge

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The Learning

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The positives

Employers are approaching us, as schools
Provider engagement
Job opportunities everywhere for students

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Caleb�Civil Construction

Did a full 2 weeks work placement
Shadowed and talked to geotechnical engineers, environmental engineers, engineering managers, design engineers, water resource engineers, civil engineers

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Jack�Dentistry

Day in clinic plus day in a dental mobile unit
Talked to staff about their career journeys
Learnt about sterilising dental tools
Learnt about the qualifications required

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The negatives�(the challenges)

Funding (or shortage of)
Increased cost of courses
Increase in fuel, equipment for students, etc
Spent Gateway funds in good faith only to be lockdown
Implications of the wash-up of funds.

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Time balance for students
Teachers not wanting students out of class
Not doing courses and placements in school holidays
Missing out on NCEA credits

This is not a time to be negative but I think we need to face reality.

Implications of two years of lockdowns
Students wanting to do Gateway but not wanting to take time out of class
Teachers not wanting students out of class.
Students not wanting to do courses and sometimes placements in the school holidays (fair enough!)
Fear of missing out on school credits with little view of credits that can be gained outside of school

Funding is a huge issue
Increased course costs
Increases in cost of living, fuel, equipment for students, etc
Implications of last year’s claw-back of funds for unplaced students
Spent Gateway funds on students gaining work prep and industry credits only for placements not to happen during the second Auckland lockdown

Reality was that the claw-back of funds caused a huge amount of stress for those running Gateway Programmes for this year.

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The challenges

For schools, teachers, parents, whanau:

Debunking myths about the Gateway programme:

Only for Vocational Pathway students;
Not for academic or university-bound students.

Debunking myths about qualifications and earnings:

Going to university straight out of school is the only time to go to university;
A degree equate to success for life and huge salaries.

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The challenges

For students:

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Thank you

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