A new immersive classroom experience is giving aspiring teachers the opportunity to visualise what it’s like to work across the full spectrum of school learning environments – a staff room, an early learning space, a primary classroom and a secondary classroom.
The interactive experience – built by events specialists En Pointe in consultation with teachers – targets both school leavers and those seeking a switch in career.
En Pointe Events Director, Rocco Trimboli said the classroom experience enables aspiring teachers to learn about pathways into roles as educators and teachers in early childhood, primary and secondary education, and speak to real life educators who answer questions and talk about their own professional experience.
“We made the experience as authentic as possible by consulting on design choices with a current teacher who provided industry-based advice as we created the space, carefully selected props and even insured that featured books came from curriculum-approved books,” En Pointe Events Director, Rocco Trimboli said.
“Incorporating interactivity and ‘play-based learning’ was another key design focus. Just some of the ways we achieved this include a nature play table in the early childhood quadrant, sensory play mats and other sensory / calming activities. These had a great impact during the Melbourne careers expo, proving popular with career seekers.”
The interactive experience, which is currently appearing at career expos across Australia (most recently at the Melbourne Career Expo at MCEC), is also part of the Victorian Education Department’s ‘Teach the Future’ recruitment campaign, which aims to raise the profile of teaching and encourage school leavers to train to teach in schools across the state.
Since 2019, the Victorian Government has invested more than $1.4bn in school workforce initiatives, including more than $360m in teacher attraction and retention.
“It’s hard to overstate the importance of our teachers, so we’re investing significantly in a range of programs to attract, train and retain the best people - from financial support for people taking up hard to fill roles to more paid, on-the-job training,” Victorian Education Minister, Natalie Hutchins said.
“This interactive classroom experience gives people a great way to talk to teachers about their experiences and to explore the various pathways into teaching.”
The interactive classroom experience is appearing at the upcoming Canberra CareersXpo (9-10 August), Victorian Careers and Employment Expo (17-19 August) and Sydney Career and Employment Expo (8-9 September).