Heather Secondary School hosts Careerfest 24
In its quest to empower the current cohort of matriculants to make the correct career choices, Heather Secondary School hosted a Careerfest from Monday April 15 to Wednesday April 17.
The unique feature of this fest was that all the industry speakers were past pupils who matriculated from the school who have made significant strides in the corporate sector as well as a former teacher.
The idea behind the concept was that the pupils were more likely to relate and respond to Heather alumni who have passed through the portals of the school.
The event took place at the school, with former pupils currently in the health and medicine, commerce, education and engineering professions giving sage advice and guidance to the current matriculants and their parents. The aim was also to share firsthand experiences of their professions.
Shana Reddy, principal of the school, said the fest would help the pupils to decide on their future.
“We looked at our pupils and the careers that they will be exposed to. Nithia Naidoo, from the class of 1993 came on board and came up with this idea of inviting former pupils. Normally we have tertiary institutions, but now we have people who have been doing this job and are alumni of the school who can provide insight to these pupils. In the future, we will be bringing other people from other vocations, not only those who are going to universities but those who want to go to TVET colleges as well,” said Reddy.
Naidoo, who has started working with the school and is also a past pupil, said that they wanted to engage more with the community and pupils.
“This school started a process of rejuvenation at the beginning of this year. We want to do more in the community; we want to do our best. We want to educate them on the world that they are going to face. The pupils came up with the professions they want to know more about,” he said.
“We can get the universities to come and speak to them but how motivating is it? Would it not be better if we had people from the school and from the community and that is where we started," he added.
Naidoo added that there were a lot of new and exciting things happening at the school.
“We are building an alumni community, we are building a teacher community. We are trying to rekindle our relationship with the community.
“There were a lot of questions coming from pupils on things that matter to them. The alumni want to give back. They want to help Heather's pupils be better prepared,” he said.