Fifth form alternative

Press, 22 October 1986, Page 17

Fifth form alternative

This year’s fifth form alternative class at Burnside started with 25 pupils. Now only 11 remain. One or two have left without jobs, but the rest have found work. At the end of each term the students spend a week on work experience. This has varied from storeperson, baker, service station attendant and daycare worker, to working at a kindergarten, in a nursing home, a dairy, an aluminium factory, and at the Christchurch Airport for Mount

Cook. The students often get placed through these jobs, at least one each time. But for those who remain, the job-seeking process continues. Five or six will probably come back next year to help increase their chances of finding work in the areas they choose. Tania is going to Hagley High School for a one-term machine sewing course, and hopes to

find a job after this. Andrew hopes to gain an apprenticeship with a builder — he doesn’t think jobs are too tight in this area, and has had one ' promising interview. “I just have to wait for them to ring back.” Other choices include being a male nurse and a carpenter — quite a few students have no particular direction, and are just hoping “something will come up.”