As many, perhaps most, high-school students engage in paid part-time employment, there is available in any Australian senior school classroom a range of work experiences that can be used to assist students to consider and reflect on working life and post-school pathways. Furthermore, these experiences are more readily available and authentic than…

The way school students understand work through their paid part-time work and participation in school-based apprenticeships has the potential to inform career decision making and further education pathways. Through classroom-based interventions this project sought to assist student's and teacher's understandings of 'authentic' work experiences.…

This paper proposes co-opting high school students' paid part-time work experiences to develop their critical understanding of the world of work, beyond their schooling through post-school pathways. It argues that unlike work experience program or work placements organised through schools, students' paid part-time employment provides authentic…