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Robyn Pemberton, Director, Careers and Pathways Programs, and Shannon Mudiman, Leader, ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍøal Pathways Program (EPP), recently shared their insights on the program’s achievements in 2025 and the focus for the coming year. Their conversation provides great insights into how the EPP is evolving to meet the careers needs and aspirations of NSW public school students.

Here is an extract from the Q&A:

Looking back at 2025, what’s the most significant achievement of the ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍøal Pathways Program that comes to mind, and what has this success meant for students in our schools?

Robyn: We view the EPP's success in terms of strategic value, noting how it has strengthened the Careers and Pathways Programs business unit’s overall commitment to careers education. The EPP's outcomes show strong system alignment, directly supporting broader system goals and government priorities in careers education, critical skills and workforce development. Significantly, via our Head Teacher Careers team, we are raising the profile of career education and career and transition advisers right across our system. This work is increasing the quality of career education programs and access, particularly in our regional, rural and remote areas and Connected Communities schools.

Shannon: For us, securing ongoing funding was a major success. More importantly, we are seeing real student outcomes in our data, specifically showing increased uptake of school-based apprenticeships and traineeships (SBATs). We also want to highlight specific innovations - things like the Aviation Microcredential Pilot, a collaboration between the EPP, Western Sydney University, and Western Sydney International Airport. This program provides Year 10 students with a nationally recognised, free microcredential to introduce them to the rapidly growing aviation sector and enhance their career pathways.

From your perspective, what was the greatest challenge the EPP faced this year, and how was it overcome?

Shannon: Our primary challenge was focusing on maintaining high quality implementation across our 183 schools, launching the Northern Beaches pilot and supporting new staff joining the program. This meant overcoming logistical issues like resource allocation and school engagement, particularly regarding student travel and equitable access to training. Going forward, we need to continue to engage our Training Services colleagues, to deal with some of the challenges in regional, rural and remote areas. We’ve been active with our local or regional teams and how they’ve adapted, and how EPP leadership provided agile support when needed.

Robyn: We faced various system and policy challenges, such as adapting to changing workforce needs, maintaining staff capability across the state, and ensuring equitable access for all student cohorts. We’ve been actively collaborating across Careers and Pathways Programs and vocational education and training in Secondary Schools, (VETSS), and expanding our reach across non-EPP schools, especially through the Careers Immersion Team meetings co-ordinated by the EPP’s Head Teacher Careers. The real challenge is achieving equity of access because the EPP is not currently in all schools, yet the need is significant across the state. We also need to recognise that we aim to support schools in delivering against two key system priorities: pathways post school and Year 12 completion rates in Our Plan for NSW Public ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø.

How can the EPP continue to work with and across the broader careers and pathways programs to share its success, maximising the benefits for all students?

Robyn: Through effective leadership, Careers and Pathways Programs (C&PP) is actively creating structures, such as the EPP Leadership Governance Group, and our internal C&PP Ways of Working groups to ensure innovations are regularly reviewed and considered by other related programs. We don’t do this work alone; Principal Champions are key to program success. The EPP is serving as a model for systemic change and best practice, meaning the lessons learned here can influence all future pathways initiatives. We are contributing to the work of schools in terms of achieving their Pathways Improvement Measures, for example, through the EPP’s Working Group, forums and direct support for school leaders, as well as leveraging the knowledge, expertise and connections of the Pathways Improvement Coordinators within the C&PP team.

Shannon: We need to make sure we are efficiently sharing resources, ensuring EPP-developed processes, approaches and tools can be easily adapted by other programs. We are focusing on effective mechanisms - we welcome local innovation, partnerships and encourage our people to present their success stories at Careers Immersion Team meetings and direct engagement with school executives to encourage broader adoption and impactful local delivery for students. We are also seeking to contribute further to our career adviser capability to support students, especially through our Careers Immersion Team meetings and broader professional learning (PL). Now that we are all under the one C&PP umbrella, we are deepening collaboration and planning, delivering a united team approach to supporting schools.

Feedback from the Regional Roundtables highlighted areas of both challenge and opportunity. What key insight from this regional consultation will most directly influence the EPP's planning for 2026?

Shannon: Our focus is on the specific, actionable need to improve access to training, developing and delivering the skills required for the NSW economy and especially our future workforces in regional, rural and remote (RRR) future locations. This is about helping students start their careers in the regions where they grew up and have their support networks. We are specifically targeting improved outcomes for multicultural students, students with disabilities and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students. As an action, we will continue to work with our colleagues from Transport for NSW to pursue better transport options, listing access to opportunities and more localised course or training delivery. Finally, we need to deeply understand and reinforce the importance of the role of parents in the student journey, so we will deliver a real focus in 2026 on engaging parents and carers.

Robyn: The overarching strategic conclusion is the need for a sustained, long-term commitment to regional skills and training pipelines, which includes resolving the transport ‘tyranny of distance’. Our commitment is that the C&PP will leverage the EPP to address the structural issues identified, such as stable funding and ongoing professional learning for career advisers. We will be leveraging programs already implemented through Careers and Workplace Learning (CWL) and the work being done on the Careers ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø Framework (CEF). This involves formalising a role description for career advisers through capability building, mandatory training and PL. We will be using the ‘team around a school’ approach , which includes the EPP but also Regional Industry ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø Partnerships (RIEP) program, CWL and VETSS Support Officers.

The EPP relies heavily on the work of local schools and dedicated staff. What is your key message of thanks or advice to the regional teams and career advisers who implemented the programs this year?

Robyn: I want to acknowledge the strategic importance of their work, highlighting that it is vital to the state’s economy and future workforce. I also encourage a systems-thinking approach, asking local teams to see their work as part of a connected network of careers and pathways programs.

Shannon: We want to sincerely acknowledge the effort - thanking career advisers and school teams for their dedication and flexibility in navigating the year's challenges. We certainly encourage continued local innovation and collaboration with regional EPP staff.

As we head into 2026, what is the number one strategic priority for the EPP?

Shannon: Our top priority is optimisation and embedding, ensuring the successful programs and practices from 2025 are fully optimised and embedded in the schools' ongoing strategic plans. This requires a strong focus on quality and maintaining the integrity of the EPP experience as it grows. We want our teams to know that we are here to help, and we are keen to continue to share their expertise to compliment what works best for schools and students.

Robyn: My priority is integration and maturity - the EPP needs to become a fully integrated, sustainable, and mature component of the state's education offering. To achieve this, we must maintain our focus on the evidence base, continuing to build it to secure long-term investment in careers education programs.

Q7: Is there anything I haven’t asked about that you would like to add before we celebrate the end of another successful EPP school year?

Robyn: I would like to close by extending a huge thank you to all school-based staff who deliver the initiatives of the EPP for students. Your dedication is inspiring and central to the program’s success. As we move forward, I strongly encourage further collaboration and sharing of best practice across all Careers and Pathways Programs, to maximise our collective impact. We wish everyone a very happy holiday break and look forward to a successful 2026.

Shannon: I’d like to echo Robyn’s thanks and add a big thank-you to all initiative leads. Again, we want to reiterate that we are here to help, and we are keen to continue to share the expertise of our team to compliment what works for schools and students. I also want to sincerely thank the whole EPP team for a stellar effort in 2025 - your commitment to working with our schools is critical to delivering the life-changing outcomes we see for our students.