Room 17 Goes Large

The Creative Industries Faculty at QUT is researching and developing a post school transition program to support school leavers and young adults experiencing equity and access obstacles to higher education. For a lot of young people, the traditional routes to university are opaque and exclusionary. For senior school students from diverse backgrounds, who are more likely to experience equity and access obstacles, obtaining tertiary education and post-secondary school training requires a supported transition process that connects schools and their students with universities and their entry procedures. A lack of information about educational expectations, systemic ignorance regarding individuals’ cultures and various implications that stem from settlement practices often results in those students being pushed to the margins of the Australian education system. The images and footage you see here were captured during the Room 17 Goes Large program, where students from Milpera State High School were mentored by early career creatives from the Bachelor of Fine Arts (music, dance, and film) degree at QUT’s Creative Industries Faculty. While finding stories, building skills and engaging in creative play with their mentors, Milpera students also worked with career counsellors and student ambassadors to gather insights into the post-school transition journey. The program concluded with students presenting the creative outcomes of the project to fellow Milpera students and the broader community at the QUT CreateX Festival in November, 2018. Creative post-school transition programs such as Room 17 Goes Large provide a framework which supports cohorts of diverse young people to engage with the university sector in a way that embraces their unique expert knowledges in a safe and inclusive environment.