Guest speaker gives advice on future career pathways

By Sarah Rogers

Nick Smith, Regional manager for Elgas visited Penola high School on the 14th August in cooperation with SA Great Speakers-in-schools program, to talk to the students about their career pathways.

The SA Great organization aims to help promote South Australia’s growing opportunities to a vast range of age groups. This was Nick’s first year as a speaker in the Speakers-in-schools program. During his speech, Nick spoke of his life experiences and how they influenced his various jobs the industry in which he works from after high school to his present day employment at Elgas.

Reflecting on his speech to the Year 10, 11 and 12 students, Nick believed it went quite well.
“I was happy with the speech because it is important to provide advice to students about their career pathways.”
“I gain the feeling that I am helping students to grow and maximize their opportunities.”

Asked if his life experiences with his various jobs have helped him achieve his goals and get him to where he is today, Nick believed that they did, indeed, help him.
“You don’t have to set a path and stay on it. You are what you choose to be and you shouldn’t be afraid to take risks.”
Nick also believes that his family ethics growing up on the land have also helped him with his jobs, “When you work on the land, you work hard, which teaches you not to take things for granted.”

The presentation will certainly have a profound benefit for the students in the way that they can relate to experiences and understand that there are various different career pathways that can be achieved through hard work and determination.