Students turn to TAFE to finish HSC
Hundreds of students took the unconventional path to completing the HSC this year, opting to go through TAFE.
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Hundreds of students took the unconventional path to completing the HSC this year, opting to do it in the more adult learning environment of a TAFE classroom — or completely online themselves.
Olivia Deppeler-Howe, 18, enrolled in a TAFE Tourism Travel and Events HSC online course because she had missed so much school because of a chronic illness.
“My careers adviser told me she wasn’t sure if I was going to complete the HSC at all because I wasn’t attending class,” she said.
“But by doing the TAFE course online it saved me, it let me finish HSC.”
Ms Deppeler-Howe has thoracic outlet syndrome, meaning she has difficulty writing properly because of poor blood flow in her arms.
“Learning online with TAFE is really different from learning in the classroom because you don’t have one teacher, it is a lot of independent study,” she said.
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“You also have to do work placement, which was good because you got a lot of hands on experience.”
She placed first in the state for her performance in the Tourism Travel and Events examination, which she completed at TAFE’s Northern Sydney Institute.
“It is a lot of independent study — you use an online platform, but they have a lot of videos and things like that.”