There’s a world of difference between becoming an architect and having a career in real estate – but at 16 years old how do you begin to decide which one you’re most suited to, and the best pathway to take you there?

Those are effectively the decisions Year 10 students face when they choose their senior subjects, start an apprenticeship or decide to enter the workforce.

At Kingsgrove High School, a successful and unique partnership between deputy principal Mary Frangoulis and “genius” Year 10 student Peter N has given students an innovative online tool to help them determine their most suitable career options and realistic study pathways.

The website www.myeducationplan.com.au is the culmination of more than 10 years of content development by Ms Frangoulis and Peter’s professional web design skills.

Since the collaboration began three years ago about 540 Year 10 students at the school have worked their way through the resource to discover their skills, their preferences, the careers they would enjoy and the courses that best support their goals.

Ms Frangoulis says the site has already driven several significant changes.

“We used to have 70 per cent of kids expecting to go to uni straight after school – and the problem is for some of those kids that was very unrealistic, so what we have now is a smaller group ticking the UAI [Universities Admissions Index] box and a larger group ticking the HSC with a VET (vocational education and training) component – there’s a 40 per cent increase in that.”

The most significant change is that only one or two Year 11 students want to amend subject choices in their first term.

Ms Frangoulis says the students’ plans and aspirations are “much more realistic and are made in relation to study pathways”.

The education planning resource was developed from a model Ms Frangoulis began in 1995 at Canterbury Girls High School.

In 2004 she asked Peter, then 13 years old, if he thought they could “look at doing something with this on the computer”.

To her delight and amazement Peter came back with the completed program, which he says took “two or three hours a night for two or three weeks”.

A self-taught prodigy, Peter was 10 years old when he first started “fooling around with computers at home”.

“It’s from learning on my own and having a big passion for it. Things broke so I fixed them,” he says. The program’s first computerised application was on CD. Peter then created a more sophisticated online version using the design programs Dreamweaver and Photoshop.

Mentor teachers play a critical role in advising students and guiding them through a step-by-step process, which includes determining whether they are “left- or right-brain dominant” and their learning and operating preferences.

“It’s not about saying you can do some things and you can’t do others, it’s about understanding that you have preferences and that those preferences need to be part of your decision,” Ms Frangoulis says.

The website also contains a comprehensive course information handbook, that indicates what “sort of thinker, what sort of operator” is most likely to succeed in each subject area.

After working through their own profile and determining their preferred career area, students then look at pathway options.

Ms Frangoulis says students are better prepared by having “sideways” options.

“They can now say, ‘I know I’m not going to get the UAI I need to study this at uni, so … I can go to TAFE , get a diploma through there, get a couple of years industry experience and then go to uni’. They can reduce their time at uni and the money it costs,” she says.

It’s appropriate that this year, Peter will finally use the website to create his own education plan.

“I’d like to do software engineering and get a degree,” Peter says, adding that he already has work placement one day a week with a leading website design company. And to cap it off he has already been given a pay rise for solving a technical problem that had his colleagues stumped.

If that wasn’t enough Peter’s work has been commended by executives at Microsoft.

Ms Frangoulis contacted the software company when Peter asked to go to an international Microsoft conference costing $1,500 per ticket.

“They gave Peter a complimentary ticket to the three-day conference at Darling Harbour, and a complimentary ticket for a teacher chaperone to be with him every day. That’s how impressed they were by his work,” Ms Frangoulis says.

With Peter looking forward to his senior studies, a succession plan for site upkeep is already in place.

The teacher/student team will embark on one more project; training a group of Year 7 students to take over the mouse.