Career Changing Ideas

FROM writing code to put feathers on penguins to starting a drone business, young people in regional areas can shape new careers by blending technology and creativity, as shown to them today in Merriwa by the University of Newcastle and the Creative Industry Roadshow.

Kristi Street, project manager said the roadshow is designed to change the perception of country students about the world of career possibilities.

“There are new jobs starting to appear that weren’t around 20 years ago, things like using virtual reality to show someone through a house before it has been built, or an app to help nurses learn to triage patients complete with a crying baby and a patient sitting quietly and many of these jobs can be done from regional Australia, so we want to open students up to the career possibilities,” said Ms Street.

“The students have been doing workshops in animation, film making using iPhones and they can see you don’t need really expensive equipment, these are things that ca be done on platforms they already have access to,” she said.

“It is great to have 60 students here from around the local area and also to talk to the careers advisors about how students can go down these career paths be it at University, TAFE or internships,” Kristi Street said.

David Kalev-Roy a year 11 student at Scone High School is already passionate about film making and animation.

“I wanted to do this for the fun of it and animation is somewhere I’d like to be in the future,” said Mr Kalev-Roy.

“It was exciting to see the work of the teachers here and I got to show some of my work to an animator who works for Nickelodeon and that was a really good experience and it inspires me to be better at what I do,” he said.

“After year 12 I think I’d like to study 2-D animation and film making is something I am interested in,” David Kalev-Roy said.

Sarah Nairne, a year 9 student from Merriwa Central School hadn’t thought about film making and animation as a career path but said the experience had opened her eyes.

“I never thought of this as a career, I’d thought about law, medicine and being a teacher, the usual things, but this is pretty good,” she laughed.

“I like the idea of meeting new people and new opportunities,” she said.

“I am definitely thinking more about behind the scenes of film making and media, things like directing,” Sarah Nairne said.