The focus for year 10 is on expanding their idea of careers exploration to look at what they are particularly showing interest in, exploring how their learning, soft and hard skill development prepares them for future study and careers. In October of Year 10, the UCO will administer the PSAT for all students and the score report will be used in discussion when choosing Diploma courses for Year 11 and encouraged to start a programme of self-discovery, college research and career exploration. Year 10 also do a YouScience assessment to inform their thinking about their aptitudes and interests. Every year 10 student has at least two meetings with their UC to discuss YouScience and also their IBDP options choices.
YouScience is an invaluable assessment tool which helps students learn about their own unique aptitudes, interests and characteristics. Whether a VSA student knows what they want to do, or is unsure, choosing a career or college can be intimidating and the YouScience “brain games” use cutting edge technology to gather real measures of aptitudes and interests. Students then explore how their natural abilities and interests fit with over 500 careers. The language of the report is tailored to them and is a helful tool for future CV writing, interviews and any area where they need to have language at the ready to self-advocate.
Unifrog is a complete 'destinations platform', that is, it is a one-stop-shop for students across year 9 to 12 at VSA regardless of their interests or academic ability. Students in Year 10 use this platform to conduct careers research and to start logging their development of core competencies (commonly referred to as 'soft skills').
Unifrog is also used in PSHE lessons to help students explore the 'subjects library'. This library contains videos, articles and matching resources where students can explore combinations of subject areas of interest in terms of potential university programmes and careers.
Victoria Shanghai Academy runs the Collegeboard PSAT/NMSQT test in October each year. The results give students an insight into how best to prepare for college admissions tests like the SAT as well as personalised information on core skills they can work on via the Khan Academy.