Building Confidence and Finding Their Future Careers

For Isabella Palandri and Lachlan Tailly, their traineeships at St Joseph’s College have provided a chance to gain hands-on experience, build confidence and discover what they want to do next in their careers.

Bella is doing a fantastic job as the first female trainee at the all-boys school, embracing the opportunity to work alongside teachers and students in the Valdocco Program – a specialised Year 9 campus and applied learning curriculum.

“The best part of my traineeship is I get to be involved with a lot of sports. I get to be around the students and see how they all learn. I like seeing how the teachers plan out their sessions and classes and all the effort and planning they put in.”

The traineeship has also tested Bella’s resilience, with a sporting injury adding an extra challenge to her year. Despite injuring her thumb, she didn’t miss a day of work and continued to give her best throughout her traineeship.

For Bella, the experience has been about more than developing practical skills. It has also helped her grow in confidence and build strong connections with the people around her.

“It’s been great to connect with a lot of students and staff members. I think also this traineeship has made me a bit more confident in my lifestyle and everything.”

Like Bella, Lachlan is passionate about sport, playing football and basketball. His traineeship has allowed him to turn that passion into hands-on experience. He has also had to work through a sporting injury this year while continuing to make the most of his time at St Joseph’s.

Having previously attended the school himself, Lachlan has returned as a trainee and gained a new perspective on the teaching environment. The experience has also helped him work out what he wants to pursue after finishing school.

“I was quite adamant on taking a gap year as I didn’t really know what I wanted to do outside of high school.

“Having this experience has been really eye-opening. It’s definitely persuaded me to go down into the teaching route in the future.”

Lachlan has also been able to build on his experience as a basketball coach, developing his confidence when working with students and teachers.

“I’m very big on the confidence thing as well. I coach a high level of basketball outside of this and having the ability to talk to the team as a coach as well as a teacher is great. They feel comfortable talking to me about things which has been really good.”

While their experiences at St Joseph’s have been different, confidence is something both trainees say they have gained from their time in the workplace. They have also both embraced the opportunity to learn, work through challenges and gain a clearer idea of where they want to go next.

With both planning to head to university next year, their traineeships have given them a strong foundation for what comes next. Lachlan plans to study secondary teaching at Deakin University, while Bella is looking at studying at ACU.