VCAL
Mount Ridley P-12 College proudly offers a VCAL program that allows school students to begin an industry recognised qualification coupled with gaining practical employability skills.
Like the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), the VCAL program provides students with a recognised secondary qualification. These qualifications include three certificate levels including: Foundation, Intermediate and Senior certificates.
Year 11 and Year 12 students in the VCAL program have access to a wide variety of VET (Vocational Education and Training) courses including: Automotive, Allied Health, Building and Construction, Children Services Electrical, Hospitality, Hair and Beauty, and Plumbing. Students undertake these VET courses at an external training organisation including IVET, Kangan Institute, Box Hill Institute and Victoria University.
Integrated curriculum and explicit teaching practices are implemented in the VCAL program in order to optimise student learning. This provides students with the opportunity to organise and facilitate a variety of student directed projects within the community. These community projects include; VCAL Café, RACV Energy Breakthrough Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, Mentoring Programs and Amazing Race excursions. All curriculum is developed on the basis of numeracy, literacy, personal development and work related skills.
Students completing Year 11 and Year 12 VCAL are expected to attend school Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and are required to attend TAFE and/or work experience on Wednesday and Friday.
Additionally, Mount Ridley P-12 College offers VET (Vocational Education and Training) to students completing Year 10, Year 11 and Year 12 VCAL. Students will be taught Certificate I or Certificate II in a range of VET subjects including Certificate II in Business.
Application process
In order for students to be eligible for consideration for selection in the VCAL program at Mount Ridley College students must:
- maintain a minimum of 3.0 GPA
- submit an expression of interest, nominating and justifying 3 VET courses they wish to undertake
- have a teacher support their application for entering the VCAL program.
- be interviewed by the Director of Teaching Practice and Curriculum Programs (VCE/VCAL) and/or the VCAL Program leader. A parent or guardian will need to be in attendance at the interview.
Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses
As part of their Senior Schooling, students are able to study courses that not only contribute towards their VCE, VCAL and ATAR (with certain restrictions), but also give them an Industry recognised qualification when they complete that course. The courses are called Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses and can be studied at school or through another Registered Training Organisation such as TAFE.
For Mount Ridley College students, there are two options available as to where VET courses can be completed:
- On site at Mount Ridley P-12 College, for limited units.
- Off site at either a TAFE, Registered Training Organisation (RTO) or alternative Secondary College on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday depending on their TAFE course
Our students undertake VET courses with a range of training organisations, including IVET, Kangan Institute, Victoria University, NCAT, William Angliss and Box Hill Institute.
Students can complete VET Sport and Recreation as well as VET Music Industry here at Mount Ridley College.
Externally there is a wide range of VET courses that students can access including Allied Health, Building and Construction, Electrotechnology, Hospitality, Hair and Beauty, Automotive, Plumbing and many more.
VET is suited towards students who:
- Are thinking of obtaining an apprenticeship or traineeship after school;
- Are already skilled in an industry area and can gain excellent study scores for university entry;
- Are interested in developing a practical skills base for diploma and degree level courses;
- Would like to gain an industry qualification, as well as their VCE or VCAL;
- Enjoy practical based learning environments;
- Want to keep their options open after completing Year 12;
- Want to obtain part-time work in an industry.