As year 12 students around the country finish their final exams and anxiously await results, for many of them it feels that their entire future hangs on their ATAR score. Show
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 40 minutes 14 seconds40m Your ATAR isn't everything: hear from successful school drop outsBut former high school dropouts say that not having an ATAR has been no barrier to pursuing their dream careers. Eleven years ago Seve Pratico was approaching his final exams at a private Perth boys school when the pressure became unbearable. "I guess the internal pressure I put myself under, going to such prestigious school, just became a battle in my head," he recalled. 'ATAR exams were a huge weight'After completing his mock exams he decided he could not continue, despite feeling enormous pressure to achieve a high university entrance score. When he eventually told his parents he felt a huge weight was lifted. "They saw me and how I was going through things, the stress and anxiety, and they were 100 per cent behind me and supported me all the way," he said. Despite never sitting those all-important exams his life has turned out just fine. After year 12 he went to TAFE to study building design and has now built his own business, doing a job that he loves. He wants other young people to know that success in high school and a high ATAR score is not the be-all and end-all in life — even if all your friends are going to university. "I feel it's not talked enough about," he added. "Whichever avenue you take we are all still equal and as long as you're doing what you love that's the main thing. It's not a competition." 'I just wanted complete freedom and to stay up late'For Rachael O'Byrne, leaving school before year 12 was not a fraught decision. "I was at a private girl's school and I had been really quite ill in year 10 and taken a few months off. When I came back my grades went from As and Bs to Ds and Fs," Ms O'Byrne said. "Around the same time I met some friends who were going to nightclubs and decided that going out dancing on a Wednesday night from midnight to four in the morning was probably more fun." Ms O'Byrne worked in hospitality and retail and did a great deal of travelling, including two years living in Japan teaching English and working in bars. "I remember girls at the cafes I worked at being uni students and they were like aliens to me," she recalled. Rachael O'Byrne(ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne)"I didn't know what they did and didn't have any interest in what they did." It was not until she was 28 and working in what turned out to be her last cafe job that she decided she needed to find more meaningful work. "I really decided I can't do this anymore and I happened to stumble across a Victorian universities application a booklet and thought 'okay, I'll apply'." She ended up talking her way into a psychology course, without an ATAR, and threw herself into study — eventually graduating with a Masters degree. She now practises as a clinical psychologist and sees many young people who are uncertain about their life direction and who feel they should have their life figured out by the age of 22. "I think for some kids who know they want to do it all feels quite straightforward," she said. "I think probably for those of us who took a bit longer might think that would have been nice. But as it turns out it's not that case for everybody." For some students, year 12 isn't the right point to sit tough exams and aim for university.(ABC News: Nicole Chettle)'I was asked to leave school at 15'Many ABC Radio Perth listeners agreed that setting out on a clear path of study and career immediately after leaving school was not the only pathway.
Dr Tim Pitman researches higher education policy and says 'life is a plan B'.(ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne) Tim Pitman, a higher education policy researcher at Curtin University, said there are now many pathways to enrolment to university without an ATAR and "if the time's not right it's a waste". "Life is a plan B," Dr Pitman said. "When the moment's right there are options for you, without a doubt." Posted 21 Nov 201921 Nov 2019Thu 21 Nov 2019 at 1:06am, updated 21 Nov 201921 Nov 2019Thu 21 Nov 2019 at 1:52am Share
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Dropping out of high school Australia
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