The Liberal Government's My Education initiative will make career guidance part of learning from Kindergarten through to Year 12 – as it needs to be.
Waiting until Year 10 to deliver any career guidance does not allow students the best chance to identify and work to their personal interests, strengths and aspirations throughout their education.
The depth of feeling among parents about career planning indicates exactly why we need to do more of it, from an earlier age, and teachers should be front and centre in this.
My Education formalises the positive role that teachers have always played, and continue to play, in influencing the career planning of their students. This means teachers will actively work with students on career planning as part of the curriculum, using a variety of resources.
Our new model will bring age-appropriate career planning into the classroom and embed a whole-school approach in the curriculum, with those adults who are most influential in the lives of our young people, parents and teachers, working together in partnership.
My Education supersedes the Guaranteeing Futures program, which was cut by the previous Labor-Green government to the point that it focussed on a single year.
Contemporary research, conducted both internationally and locally, demonstrates that a K-12 approach to career development, as part of the curriculum, is the preferred model.
We want to ensure that students are involved in decision making about future options and pathways from the beginning and right through their education, together with their parents and carers.
It is too late to leave it to Year 10, and too little to leave it to one year of a student's education.
My Education will be implemented in a staged roll out, starting with Year 10 students next year and with extensive consultation with parents, teachers and other stakeholders.