Above: Year 10 Doveton Secondary College student Maria Motarina signs the ‘no dole’ pledge board along with ministers and local business representatives.
By Rebecca Fraser
THIRTY Doveton Secondary College students certainly won’t be heading for the dole queue.
On Tuesday, the year-10 students took a public “no dole” pledge in front of peers, guests and local business and industry leaders and committed themselves to further training and employment instead of going on unemployment benefits.
This is the third year the school has taken part in the pledge and principal Nigel Hutchison said the initiative was helping boost student retention rates.
The no-dole program began in Tasmania in early 1995 and pledges are now read out at schools across Australia.
Dandenong MP John Pandazopoulos witnessed Tuesday’s pledge and Triple J radio presenter Declan Fay gave a humorous motivational speech.
Mr Hutchison said the pledge had greatly changed students’ approach to education and helped them focus more on their career aspirations and become more involved in the education process.
He said the program had been so successful that students had even stayed to complete year 11 and were taking far greater personal interest in their education.
Mr Hutchison said he was pleased that many local businesses and TAFE and training institutes had also come out to witness the pledge and said some might even become his students’ future employers and education providers.
Mr Pandazopoulos said he had been impressed by the pledge and the strong industry links the school had formed.
He said he had enjoyed hearing about the students’ diverse range of career aspirations, including working in automotive industry as electricians, plumbing, building, multimedia and information technology, hotel management, theatre and nursing.
“It was good to get a feeling of the future aspirations of the students. Everyone gets a little distracted in their younger years when they are studying so it is good to stand up in front of peers, guests and teachers and make a pledge,” he said.
