By Adam Carey and Nicole Precel
Students entering year 11 this year will be the first to study a reformed VCE with a greater emphasis on vocational learning.
It’s hoped the new VCE vocational major, an applied learning certificate that adopts elements of the VCE such as school-assessed coursework, will also slow the surge in those choosing to do an unscored VCE.
VCE student Sienna Gladstone says she would have liked to study VCAL for her mental health, but was told it would be a waste of her potential.Credit: Penny Stephens
The huge shake-up of senior secondary education will spell the end of the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL), the alternative for students who prefer to learn with their hands rather than from textbooks.
More than 27,000 Victorian students were enrolled in VCAL last year. The year 12 students of 2023 will be the last to do so as the old certificate is phased out, and year 11 students will become the first to undertake the new VCE vocational major.
The new certificate, which is being introduced in schools at a cost of $120 million, was created in response to a review that found the vocational education and training model delivered in Victorian schools was failing to keep up with changing employment trends.
The Age spoke with several secondary school principals, all of whom expressed enthusiasm for the senior certificate reforms.
Catholic Regional College Sydenham principal Brendan Watson with vocational students from the school’s print shop in 2020.Credit: Chris Hopkins
Catholic Regional College Sydenham principal Brendan Watson said 180 students had enrolled in the VCE vocational major at his school this year.
“It’s been a better sell for families in that they see that their child is going to do the VCE,” he said.
“VCAL still had a stigma for some families, that they wanted their child to do VCE and if they weren’t, then they didn’t see it as equitable.”
Shayne Rule, principal of Lakeview Senior College in Caroline Springs, said the reform could slow the surge in students choosing to complete an unscored VCE, which had reached a level of popularity that was beginning to concern many principals.
“If this is successful, we will hopefully see some of those kids [who] have previously chosen not to do VCAL because of the perception choose to do vocational major subjects, perhaps with some traditional VCE subjects as well, and that perception barrier will break down over time,” he said.
Teachers at Kew High School are embracing the change after watching too many students leave because the school never offered VCAL. One of 25 schools that did not offer VCAL, Kew will offer the VCE vocational major this year.
“Kew has been known as an academic school, which is why we probably haven’t offered it in the past,” principal Josie Millard said.
But it meant that students who wanted to follow an applied learning pathway had to enrol at another school.
“We’re a very proud local school, we’ve got kids who started together in prep, and they were having to leave at year 10,” Millard said.
What is the VCE vocational major?
A senior secondary certificate in which students must complete:
- Three units in literacy or VCE English
- Three units in numeracy or VCE Mathematics
- Two work related skills units
- Two personal development skills units
- Two VET (vocational education and training) credits at Cert II level or above
- At least three other unit 3-4 subject sequences
The school is desperate to make a success of the new certificate, Millard said, so much so that her staff spent much of last year developing a new vocational curriculum that would engage students and give them more options to follow their passions.
Some of the school’s most qualified specialist teachers have been put in charge of the four subjects that comprise the new certificate: literacy, numeracy, work related skills and personal development skills.
Seventeen year 11 students at Kew have enrolled in the vocational major for this year, pursuing subjects including automotive, fashion, equine and animal studies, and building and construction.
Millard estimates that of those 17 students, perhaps seven would have left the school in past years, and the other 10 would have studied the VCE, but not enjoyed it and probably struggled.
“The whole thing is so much more flexible, which means that students can stay at our school until the end of year 12,” Millard said.
Year 12 student Sienna Gladstone was part of a group of students who advocated for reforms to VCE to make it easier to study vocational subjects.
Gladstone is studying VCE at a Warrnambool school, but said she had strongly considered VCAL for her mental health.
“I was told by numerous adults in my life that doing VCAL would be a waste of my academic potential,” she said. “So I was pushed into VCE.”
If the vocational major had been offered, Gladstone would have taken it.
The 18-year-old is a student executive advisory committee member for the Victorian Student Representative Council and said the VCE caused stress for students, “more so than ever”.
She hoped the vocational major was the start of reducing stigma about vocational learning.
Acting Minister for Education Ingrid Stitt said the VCE vocational major would give all students access to high-quality vocational programs to develop knowledge, confidence and skills for their future careers.
“We introduced the VCE vocational major because we know not everyone wants to go to university, and we’re making sure every young person has every opportunity to choose the career path that’s right for them,” Stitt said.
But the Victorian Applied Learning Association, which lobbied for the reforms, has warned that it is already observing some troubling missteps in the implementation of the vocational major.
Those included schools dismantling their high-performing VCAL teacher teams and moving them into VCE departments, and developing curriculums that lean more on textbooks than practical learning.
“Whilst we understand the temptation to time-poor teachers, applied learning programs should be developed with the students’ needs and interest at the centre, which inherently can’t be captured in an off-the-shelf textbook,” association chief executive Helene Rooks said.
Rooks said the new major was the most high-stakes reform of senior secondary education in a generation.
“Implementation is key to success; therefore, the positive decisions school leaders make now will set the tone for many years to come,” she said.
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