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Rangitoto College is a state co-educational secondary school, located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand, serving years 9 to 13. As the largest secondary school in Oceania, Rangitoto College is recognised locally and around the world for its academic excellence, sporting achievements, performing arts and for the quality of its young people. At Rangitoto College we aim to empower each student, through unrivalled opportunities, exceptional support and challenging academic experiences to make a positive difference in the world. We believe that great opportunities result in great students.
Overall impact
Our aim for the first year of the programme was to introduce essential skills into our careers provision. We focused on Gateway and Pathways to Employment students, whilst also raising the profile of essential skills across the wider school. Our students are becoming more aware of the importance of essential skills and are able to articulate their strengths more effectively. The focused lessons have positively impacted their skill development and supported their career and future planning.
Keep it simple
We introduced the common language of essential skills into our careers lessons. We engaged in targeted staff training to enable teachers to teach students how to effectively use the Benchmark platform. We used resources from the HUB to introduce the essential skills to students, and teachers, and to explain the importance of these skills for their future careers. The Careers Explorer tool and career cards were also useful resources in these early stages. This will then be followed by training and supervised completion of Benchmark assessments for each student. Skills Builder also conducted teacher training in Benchmark and HUB for our Careers teachers that work with Yr 12 Gateway and Yr 13 Pathways students. We then held team meetings to determine the best plan for incorporating essential skills into careers teaching across a span of 2 years. To raise the profile of essential skills across the wider school we designed and created banners for our Pathways Evening that linked the essential skill icons to subject areas. Subject teachers used the extended descriptors for each skill and highlighted three skills for their banner that were most strongly developed through their individual subjects. We created a Pathways Evening Preparation Presentation for the Year 10 students – delivered via Junior Social Sciences lessons which discussed the skills in relation to jobs. We also have digital posters on our college TV screens that highlight different career clusters and the essential skills most relevant to different career pathways. It is estimated that around 4000 people attended the Pathways Evening, so it was an excellent opportunity to familiarise parents and younger students with essential skills.
Start early, keep going
Our focus in the first year has been training staff who teach in Year 12 Gateway and then Year 13 Pathways to Employment classes, as these students have more time allocated to Careers. We have also considered how we can embed essential skills into the curriculum that these students will follow.
Later on in the year we were also able to incorporate essential skills into our Year 10 Careers programme, delivered by Social Sciences teachers in their lesson time. Due to the success of this model, the Social Sciences Department will be delivering the programme to Year 9, in 2025, whilst the English Department will teach the Year 11 Careers programme.
Measure it
We piloted students completing individual skills assessments using Benchmark, and using the skill summary report to set individual goals and activities to build target skills at a targeted step level. We tracked these results on an individual and group level, learning how we can provide both 1-1 support and group teaching based on the needs of a group of students.
Focus tightly
Rather than rush in too quickly, We focused tightly on making sure that staff were confident in talking about essential skills, in the use of the platform and delivery of resources and provided time for this work to take place, in a supported and collaborative way. Pilot students used self study to focus on their individualised targets, completing activities and online tutorials that would directly teach them the strategies they needed. Our careers teachers also reviewed the common areas for development for each class and clearly identified how to teach those steps and strategies in weekly lessons, using resources from the HUB to guide content.
Keep practising
We supported students to embed essential skill comments into their C.V. and covering letters in Careers lessons. This gave them an opportunity to articulate their knowledge and experiences in essential skills. We introduced essential skills to other curriculum areas through our Pathways Evening; this will be further embedded in 2025 through delivery of the Careers programme, and in time, expanding their use into all subject areas. This event and the follow up media communication allowed the school community to see the link between essential skills and other subject areas. In Yr9 and Yr10 Junior Social Science lessons, we incorporated essential skills with the values and self reflection topics completed. This will help to introduce students to essential skills at an earlier age and provide a good foundation for the focused work they will complete in years 12 and 13.
Bring it to life
We investigate Skills Builder premium world of work modules to bring the essential skills to life. These modules provide students with an opportunity to see real life examples of essential skills being used in a variety of careers.
What's next
We want to continue to plan and develop our integration of essential skills into our Careers provision and raise the profile of essential skills with more teachers and subject areas becoming involved in the programme. Next year, the Gateways and Pathways to Employment Teachers are going to teach “Problem Solving” integrated into specific lessons and then we will evaluate that and bring in a second skill in the course that year. We are also considering adding a “Skills Week” to the curriculum for 2026.
