Nathan: I wish I'd known that I could craft the path to my dream job with VET.

Chelsea: That there is so much more to a job than earning a wage.

Cassie: That I could carve out my dream career at 40.

Sara: Vocational education has given me my dream career.

Ammaleah: The confidence I've gained from completing my qualification has been amazing, I feel so rewarded and really proud of myself.

Lucinda: The reason why VET worked for me is because it's relatable and it's current and it works. That's the biggest thing.

Nathan: I wish I'd known how much of an opportunity was out there and how much was reachable to me at my age.

Tara: My traineeship made me want to be the best version of myself and really gave me a passion for the industry.

Cassie: My confidence came back, I felt like I could make a difference, and at one point my partner just said to me one night, he's like, "You're back."

Lachlan: Look, it's the pathway for me, it could be the pathway for you.

Tara Vickery: I wish I'd known that my mental health would thrive with a qualification. I love working in childcare. When I get to work, I see the children hit those milestones. Knowing that you're being a part of that is really rewarding.

In year nine I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, which made going into school very hard. My careers advisor came to me with the opportunity to do some work experience in the kindergarten room, and I loved it in there. From there I was offered a traineeship. My traineeship made me want to be the best version of myself and really gave me a passion for the industry, and I knew that to be in the industry I needed to complete my HSC, and it really gave me that drive to do that.

For about 12 years I played soccer. I feel so powerful when I play, and even during the height of my depression it was one of the only things that I really found enjoyment in.

In my Certificate 3 the level of detail that we went into was extraordinary. We got to dive into so many different aspects about children's development, and from that learning I was able to see so much growth in the workplace. When I see some children or a child who is in a place where they're a bit stressed or they're a bit anxious, I often invite them over to do some painting, because I know how relieving it can be for me, and hopefully it can have the same impact for them.

So when I had my diagnosis, I was in a state where I didn't think that I would amount to anything and that I didn't see a feature for myself, and my traineeship proved me wrong, and it opened so many doors for me, including getting an ATAR, so now I can go to uni and pursue primary teaching.

Jordon Peterson: I wish I'd known that dyslexia wouldn't have stopped me or hold me back from a career that I really love. I struggled all through school. I felt like I was going nowhere real quick, and so year 11, that I actually got diagnosed with severe dyslexia and from that point it changed how I learnt. Vocational Education and Training actually gave me the ability to learn, which I never thought I'd had before, and when I actually found out how I learnt by actually seeing things and doing things myself with my hands, It was... You sit there and it's quite addictive. You sit there and go, "Oh, look, look, look what I've done. Look what I've done. Look what I've learnt." They never gave me anything with a silver spoon, it was always you got to push yourself towards that goal. Instead of giving me extra homework, they'd take me out into the workshop and they'd go, "Here, why don't you go have a go at welding this," or he'd come over and actually show me, and physically be there one-on-one, help me learn and progress.

I completed my first apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer through Nestle and it was amazing. I absolutely loved every second of it and I felt at home, just where I wanted to be and I was learning what I wanted to. Every day for the last seven years, I've been able to use my hands and actually progress, and there's never been a day the same, and it was just amazing for me just to be able to walk through and go, "Oh look, I made that. I made that." Made a big impact on my life still seeing them there and being in operation. People should believe in themselves because you're your own harshest critic. Like my pop always used to tell me that I was always going places, he'd go, "Come here, Jordon. You're going to go places. You're going to go places." As a young fella, you sort of just went, "Oh yeah, whatever."

But now you sit back and look at it and go, if I really listened, I would've pushed that little bit harder. I loved getting paid to learn. I thought it was the bees knees. It was just amazing. There were so many times where I learnt and laughed and you know, you got to interact and meet new mates and new mentors throughout the way. I've gone from struggling and not really enjoying learning to, "Oh, when's me next class? When am I going to be able to do something again? When am I going to progress even further? When am I going to learn something new?" I really do wish I knew more about the different pathways there were, and that mainstream school's not for everyone. Vocational Education and Training has just opened my eyes to a whole new way of learning, and I just wish I knew about it earlier and I jumped into it earlier, that's for sure.

Caitlyn Knox: I wish I'd known my career success was nowhere near a desk. I love books. I love reading for enjoyment, but studying is just something I struggle with majorly. I'm probably a very out there personality, if the hair doesn't give it away. I'm a plant mechanic who does a variety of things. I cross-stitch, I'm a sports person who plays hockey a lot. I had to be working with my hands. I don't like sitting still for too long. I get a little bit bored and a little bit antsy. So being able to find a job and a career that allowed me to do that during my job and not be stuck at a desk eight hours a day was what I was looking for so that I wasn't going to end up getting bored of the job and of my career.

I work on construction, mining and small utility machines. I go through, they'll come in, I repair them up. I do servicing on the machines as they require. Feeling of it all starting to click for me actually came later, probably about my third year of my apprenticeship. By that point, I was sort of doing a lot of questioning going, "Should I stay in this apprenticeship? Should I finish it? Am I actually going to be good at this job?" All of a sudden it was like, "Actually, hey, I solved that. I know how to fix that. I did that."

Any female wanting to go in any trade, I highly encourage it. Have a crack at it. What's holding you back? There's nothing stopping you. And once you put your foot in the door, it's just going to create these opportunities that are going to open the world up to you. I wish I'd known that it's okay not to know what you're doing when you're young, and that making career changes is okay. You're going to make multiple of them in your lifetime.

I feel I am in my dream job. It's forever changing my dream job as my industry is forever changing with the technological changes that happen throughout, but I'm very happy with where I am in life at the moment.

Tyler Pockran: I wish I had known the amount of respect and independence that comes with a qualification. As a kid, I always watched mum cut up the onion or sharpen the knife on the steel, and it always intrigued me. And I guess from watching her I got into cooking, and that led me down to my dream of becoming a chef, which I'm now pursuing.

When I told mum I want to be a chef she said, "Go for it. Follow your dreams, do what you want to do." And then she just said, "Do some work experience," applied to a few places and ended up at a restaurant called Tetsuya's where I am today, and I've never looked back since.

I wrote a letter, it was just a short letter saying what I'd done, even the age of 15, the little odd jobs I'd done around home or at a friend's local deli, went and handed that in in person, not knowing what to do, what to say, but then they took the letter and it paid off.

Balancing my apprenticeship and schoolwork was difficult at first, because I was going to cooking school one day a week, normal school three days a week, and then work one. But then I was using my time on my train travelling to work to catch up on that work with the help of some teachers. They were always sending me emails asking me how I was going, and that's the reason why I was able to finish year 11 and 12, is because of their support.

I think a lot of respect has been given to me because I started at such a young age, because I chose my school-based apprenticeship as my pathway. It's something that a lot of people don't see as an option, as a viable option, and I guess I've been able to prove to myself and to others that you can do it, you can do whatever you set your mind to, as long as you pick the right pathway, like a school-based apprenticeship.