The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) is an alternative high-school certificate to the VCE that focusses on applied learning. VCAL offers our students a place one day per week at a TAFE provider working towards a TAFE certificate, and students are also encouraged to spend a day out in the workforce, gaining on-the-job experience in their area of study. This means that students are only on-campus at Gladstone Park Secondary College for a minimum of 3 days in the week, and these days are filled with the core subjects of Literacy, Numeracy, Personal Development Skills, Work Related Skills, as well as VET subjects if the student has chosen to complete this training on campus.
Working towards a VCAL certificate can be a demanding, but a highly rewarding time in a student’s life. It requires organisation, commitment and communication skills as students are in charge of their own progress through long-term projects. Some projects that students have worked on in 2019 include:
VCAL has become a great alternative to VCE for students at Gladstone Park, with students extending this pathway into other TAFE courses, some university degrees and even starting their own businesses after they leave school. VCAL’s applied learning focus aims to build resilient, job, workplace and community ready young adults, and is a highly sought after program.
Click here to visit our VCAL Garden Project page, read our story and view all the photos.
