Professionals advocate importance of literacy in jobs

Local high school students were all ears when a six-member panel of professionals from Beechworth were quizzed about the role of literacy in their careers last Friday. In its third year the Beechworth Secondary College (BSC) event runs during Children's Book Council of Australia's Book Week with a group of panellists to speak to students about lifelong literacy. This year Book Week was celebrated between 16-23 August this year. BSC’s Student Representative Council (SRC) members facilitated an engaging panel conversation with Cartledge Plumbing’s Tom Cartledge, Dr Christie Rodda from Beechworth Surgery and Sally Wright from The Stanley Pub. The panel also included cartoonist and caricaturist Adrian Osborne who also runs the TINY café, Peter Horobin from Horobin Saddlery and fitness coach Tom Young. The College ran two panel sessions, one for junior students from years 7 to 9 and then one for senior school students from years 10 to 12. Some questions about their jobs covered what they loved most, the difficult bits, how literacy takes part, reading and writing when at school and a favourite book when young. For local saddlery businessman Peter Horobin living overseas helped with his literacy skills. Mr Horobin left school at an early age, wasn’t a big reader and lived in in four different countries. “I did my apprenticeship in Germany as a saddler and when the workers went home, the group of 10 apprentices had to stay back and write up what we did over the day,” Mr Horobin said. He carried a notebook still in his possession, for words jotted down in another language and then translated into English. Mr Horobin can speak different languages with learning each language enhancing his literacy skills. Key Learning Area Leader and English and Psychology teacher Sarah McKay said the event with the panel is a chance to showcase local faces and role models students recognise from the local tight-knit community. “By bringing together people from a range of careers and life experiences, we can highlight the many ways literacy is used in everyday life,” she said. “It’s often in ways students may not have expected with a powerful reminder that literacy is a lifelong skill, no matter where their future takes them." Ms McKay said a variety of insights had been given by panel members. “One panellist shared how they loved reading as a teenager but kept it quiet because it wasn’t considered ‘cool’, she said. “Another highlighted how speaking skills are essential across careers from working on oil rigs overseas to working in hospitality. “And a real highlight was when a panel member brought along their well-loved childhood copy of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ – a children's picture book written and illustrated by American author and illustrator Maurice Sendak – to share with the students."

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