ACS Teams Up with Supanova to Deliver a Unique Careers Expo

The objective of this event was to increase awareness of the ACS brand in the high school, university and TAFE student spaces, to inspire the next generation and career changers to consider a move into the tech industry to help close the skills shortage gap and help connect our student members with our industry partners. 

Immediate past chair of the ACS Branch Executive Committee Queensland, Beau Tydd, attended with his 10-year-old son and said “It was a pleasure to engage with so many enthusiastic attendees eager to learn about the tech industry. ACS’s involvement succeeded in inspiring and educating students, teachers, and parents, sparking curiosity about the wide-ranging opportunities in tech. Students left motivated to explore various career paths, and ACS was able to illuminate pathways into tech that aligned with their unique interests.”

The event, which included a special student day on the 8th of November 2024 that also attracted the Supanova audience, engaged the attendees with four stages featuring career pathway sessions and career workshops. Over the three days, the event saw over 30,000 attendees enter through the door and engage with the tech industry and ACS booth via the Level Up Zone. 

ICT GISP Engagement Coordinator Erin Cowling was a co-organiser of the event (alongside Alannah Grech, ACS Partner Success Manager) and said she was thrilled to have 11 schools from the ICT GISP attend this innovative event. “Organising this event was a lot of hard work, but the end result was very much worth it for me. Not only did we deliver some great career focused sessions, but we also allowed our students to connect with the community in which they wish to be known. There is great value in building those connections.”

In addition, one of the GISP schools hosted a booth in the Level Up zone, looking to connect with additional members of the schooling community for their programs. Grace Lutheran College partners with FIRST® Australia and Macquarie University in offering world class Robotics facilities, training and tournaments to students of the College and the wider community. Each year the College hosts FIRST® LEGO League for Northern Brisbane which sees over 1000 students and parents from teams all over Australia converge on their Rothwell campus for the tournament day in November. The College is also home to the prestigious FIRST® Tech Challenge for the entire state of Queensland. If your school is interested in taking part in FIRST Tech Challenge and you have Year 7 – 12 students willing to participate, there are grant monies available to support equipment for teams.  Contact peter_kellett@glc.qld.edu.au  for more information.

Finally, staff and students from the Forest Lake State High School Esports Program of Excellence were also kind enough to attend the event, including Amber (Junior Esports Student of The Year), Brady (Junior Esports Community Student of The Year), Brandon (Esports ACS GISP Gateway Student of The Year) and Riley (Year 9 Esports competitor and games master). These students shared some great feedback, with one student remarking “You learn lots of news things.  There are different people that you’ve never heard of before, and you get to hear their story and what they’ve been doing. The one I went to, you got to hear how they developed games and got to see some of them.” Another simply said “Meeting new people, seeing people expressing what they love and doing what the really wanted to do, it was very good seeing that.”