Careers focus of three-day event

Careers professionals will flock to Rotorua tomorrow for the annual Careers and Transition Education Association conference.

The association, more commonly known as CATE, is a 600-member association with a focus on career education for youth and their transition from school into employment, training and further education.

The majority of its members are school careers advisers, transition teachers and Gateway and youth apprenticeship co-ordinators.

More than 500 professionals will attend the association's annual conference tomorrow, which will be held at the Energy Events Centre over three days.

It's the fourth time the conference has been held in Rotorua and Lynn Gillespie, from Career Network in Rotorua, said it was an opportunity for professional development for those who worked in the careers sector.

During the conference, delegates will have the opportunity to attend workshops, where they will learn new skills and interact with like-minded professionals.

Mrs Gillespie said it was great because careers professionals did not often get the opportunity for professional development.

"It's an opportunity for people to get together with people who work in the same field."

She said careers advisers were an important part of the secondary school system as it offered pathways and opportunities for all students.

"It's important that students don't leave school without a pathway."

Mrs Gillespie said there was still a "huge assumption" in the school system that university was the best option.

"There's still a huge assumption that anything else is second best," she said.

However she believed trade training was important.

"That's where all the jobs are."