VCE Vocational Major
Creating Futures Together
VCE Vocational Major
The VCE Vocational Major (VM) is a vocational and applied learning program within the VCE designed to be completed over a minimum of two years. The VCE VM will give students greater choice and flexibility to pursue their strengths and interests and develop the skills and capabilities needed to succeed in further education, work and life.
It prepares students to move into apprenticeships, traineeships, further education and training, university (via non-ATAR pathways) or directly into the workforce.
The purpose of the VCE VM is to provide students with the best opportunity to achieve their personal goals and aspirations in a rapidly changing world by:
- equipping them with the skills, knowledge, values and capabilities to be active and informed citizens, lifelong learners and confident and creative individuals; and
- empowering them to make informed decisions about the next stages of their lives through real life workplace experiences.
School process for entry to VCE VM
While all students will complete a VCE certificate, those wishing to apply for the Vocational Major are required to demonstrate the following criteria in order to secure a place in our Year 11 and 12 program:
- Complete an Expression of Interest application
- Demonstrate a history of positive learning behaviours
- Express their desire to pursue a vocational pathway in their Career Action Plan
As entry is subject to school resources, there is no guarantee students applying for VCE VM at WHSC will be offered a place in the program and students are encouraged to keep their study options open. All students must submit preferences for a VCE course in case their application to study VCE VM is unsuccessful. For further information contact the Vocational Major Coordinator or the Careers Practitioner.
Criteria to meet the VCE VM
To be eligible to receive the VCE VM, students must satisfactorily complete a minimum of 16 units, including:
- 3 VCE VM Literacy or VCE English units (including a Unit 3–4 sequence)
- 2 VCE VM Numeracy or VCE Mathematics units
- 2 VCE VM Work Related Skills units
- 2 VCE VM Personal Development Skills units, and
- 2 VET credits at Certificate II level or above (180 nominal hours)
Students must complete a minimum of three other Unit 3–4 sequences as part of their program. Units 3 and 4 of VM studies may be undertaken together over the duration of the academic year to enable these to be integrated.
The VCE VM can be tailored to the needs and interests of the student, to keep them engaged while developing their skills and knowledge. Students can also include other VCE studies and VET, and can receive structured workplace learning recognition.
Most students will undertake between 16-20 units over the two years.
Applied Learning in the VCE Vocational Major
New curriculum in VCE VM Literacy, Numeracy, Personal Development Skills and Work Related Skills has been developed by panels of current applied learning practitioners. The new curriculum is engaging, based in real life and gives students in-demand skills needed for the future world of work.
Applied learning teaches skills and knowledge in the context of ‘real life’ experiences. Students apply what they have learnt by doing, experiencing and relating acquired skills to the real-world. It enables flexible, personalised learning where teachers work with students to recognise their personal strengths, interest, goals, and experiences.
This is a shift from the traditional focus on discrete curriculum to a more integrated and contextualised approach to learning. Students learn and apply the skills and knowledge required to solve problems, implement projects or participate in structured workplace learning.
Assessment of VCE Vocational Major studies
Each VCE VM unit of study has specified learning outcomes. The VCE VM studies are standards-based. All assessments for the achievement of learning outcomes, and therefore the units, are school-based and assessed through a range of learning activities and tasks.
Unlike other VCE studies there are no external assessments of VCE VM Unit 3–4 sequences, and VCE VM studies do not receive a study score. If a student wishes to receive study scores, they can choose from the wide range of VCE studies and scored VCE VET programs that contain both internal and external assessment components.
The VCE VM studies do not contribute to the ATAR. To receive an ATAR a student must complete a scored Unit 3-4 sequence from the English group and three other Unit 3–4 scored sequences. Students must achieve two or more graded assessments in these scored sequences.
Certification
Completing the VCE VM requirements means that students have also completed the requirements of the VCE. Upon satisfactory completion of the VCE VM, students receive recognition through the appellation of ‘Vocational Major’ on their Victorian Certificate of Education and a Statement of Results.
Successful completion of VET units of competency are recognised by additional statements of attainment or certificates provided by the Registered Training Organisation.
Students who meet the requirements for satisfactory completion of the VCE, but not the requirements for the award of the Vocational Major appellation, will be awarded the VCE.
VCE Vocational Major: Literacy
VCE Vocational Major: Literacy focuses on the development of the knowledge and skills required to be literate in Australia today. The key knowledge and key skills encompass a student’s ability to interpret and create texts that have purpose, and are accurate and effective, with confidence and fluency.
Texts should be drawn from a wide range of contexts and be focused on participating in the workplace and community. Further to this, texts should be drawn from a range of sources including media texts, multimodal texts, texts used in daily interactions, and workplace texts from increasingly complex and unfamiliar settings.
As students develop these skills, they engage with texts that encompass the everyday language of personal experience to the more abstract, specialised and technical language of different workplaces, including the language of further study.
The applied learning approach of this study is intended to meet the needs of students with a wide range of abilities and aspirations.
This study enables students to:
- develop their everyday literacy skills by thinking, listening, speaking, reading, viewing and writing to meet the demands of the workplace, the community, further study and their own life skills, needs and aspirations
- participate in discussion, exploration and analysis of the purpose, audience and language of text types and content drawn from a range of local and global cultures, forms and genres, including First Nations peoples’ knowledge and voices, and different contexts and purposes
- discuss and debate the ways in which values of workplace, community and person are represented in different texts
- present ideas in a thoughtful and reasoned manner.
Click here for more information on the VCE VM Literacy by accessing the Study Design
https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/vce/vce-study-designs/VCEVMLiteracy/Pages/Index.aspx
VCE Vocational Major: Numeracy
As of 2025, VM students will be enrolled in VCE Units 1&2 Foundation Mathematics in lieu of two VCE VM Numeracy units. Students who commenced their VCE VM studies prior to 2025 will continue to complete their VCE VM Numeracy units.
VCE Vocational Major Numeracy focuses on enabling students to develop and enhance their numeracy skills to make sense of their personal, public and vocational lives. Students develop mathematical skills with consideration of their local, national and global environments and contexts, and an awareness and use of appropriate technologies.
This study allows students to explore the underpinning mathematical knowledge of number and quantity, measurement, shape, dimensions and directions, data and chance, the understanding and use of systems and processes, and mathematical relationships and thinking. This mathematical knowledge is then applied to tasks which are part of the students’ daily routines and practices, but also extends to applications outside the immediate personal environment, such as the workplace and community.
The contexts are the starting point and the focus, and are framed in terms of personal, financial, civic, health, recreational and vocational classifications. These numeracies are developed using a problem-solving cycle with four components: formulating; acting on and using mathematics; evaluating and reflecting; and communicating and reporting.
This study enables students to:
- develop and enhance their numeracy practices to help them make sense of their personal, public and vocational lives
- develop mathematical skills with consideration of their local, national and global environments and contexts, and an awareness and use of appropriate technologies.
Click here for more information on the VCE VM Numeracy by accessing the Study Design
https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/vce/vce-study-designs/VCEVMNumeracy/Pages/Index.aspx
VCE Vocational Major: Personal Development Skills
VCE Vocational Major Personal Development Skills (PDS) takes an active approach to personal development, self-realisation and citizenship by exploring interrelationships between individuals and communities. PDS focuses on health, wellbeing, community engagement and social sciences, and provides a framework through which students seek to understand and optimise their potential as individuals and as members of their community.
This study provides opportunities for students to explore influences on identity, set and achieve personal goals, interact positively with diverse communities, and identify and respond to challenges. Students will develop skills in self-knowledge and care, accessing reliable information, teamwork, and identifying their goals and future pathways.
PDS explores concepts of effective leadership, self-management, project planning and teamwork to support students to engage in their work, community and personal environment.
Through self-reflection, independent research, critical and creative thinking and collaborative action, students will extend their capacity to understand and connect with the world they live in, and build their potential to be resilient, capable citizens.
This study enables students to:
- develop a sense of identity and self-worth
- understand and apply concepts that support individual health and wellbeing
- access, critique, synthesise and communicate reliable information
- explain the role of community and the importance of social connectedness
- practise the rights and responsibilities of belonging to a community
- recognise and describe the attributes of effective leaders and teams
- set and work towards the achievement of goals
- work independently and as part of a team to understand and respond to community need
- evaluate and respond to issues that have an impact on society
- develop capacities to participate in society as active, engaged and informed citizens.
Click here for more information on the VCE VM Personal Development Skills by accessing the Study Design
VCE Vocational Major: Work Related Skills
VCE Vocational Major Work-Related Skills (WRS) examines a range of skills, knowledge and capabilities relevant to achieving individual career and educational goals. Students will develop a broad understanding of workplace environments and the future of work and education, in order to engage in theoretical and practical planning and decision-making for a successful transition to their desired pathway.
The study considers four key areas: the future of work; workplace skills and capabilities; industrial relations and the workplace environment and practice; and the development of a personal portfolio.
Students will have the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills gained from this study in the classroom environment and through Structured Workplace Learning (SWL).
This study enables students to:
- understand and apply concepts and terminology related to the workplace
- understand the complex and rapidly changing world of work and workplace environments and the impact on the individual
- understand the relationship between skills, knowledge, capabilities and the achievement of pathway goals
- develop effective communication skills to enable self-reflection and self-promotion
- apply skills and knowledge in a practical setting.
Click here for more information on the VCE VM Work Related Skills by accessing the Study Design
https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/curriculum/vce/vce-study-designs/VCEVMWorkRelatedSkills/Pages/Index.aspx
Last updated: 26.06.24