VCAL
Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning
VCAL is an alternative educational certificate to the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and is a recognised senior secondary qualification.
It gives students a practical, work-related experience, as well as literacy and numeracy skills and the opportunity to build personal skills that are important for life and work. Students who do the VCAL are likely to be interested in going on to further training at a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institute or university (Cert IV or Diploma level), starting an apprenticeship, or getting a job after completing school.
Students who complete the VCAL at Mentone Grammar are not eligible to receive an ATAR. At Intermediate level (aligned with Year 11), the focus is on the development of knowledge and employability skills that lead to independent learning, confidence and a higher level of transferable skills. At Senior level (aligned with Year 12) students integrate and apply a range of knowledge and skills to problem-solving and abstract contexts in a more independent manner.
The VCAL’s flexibility ensures students undertake a study program that suits their interests and learning needs. Fully accredited modules and units are selected from the following four compulsory strands:
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LITERACY & NUMERACY Literacy in VCAL aims to develop the reading and writing skills of students through tasks of a practical or personally relevant nature. For example, students may look at the specific language and layout of business documents or analyse topical issues through comparing news sites with social media feeds. Intermediate Literacy: Students complete VCE Foundation English Units 1 and 2 for the Literacy component of their VCAL program. Foundation English enables students to improve their skills in comprehending and responding to a variety of texts, and to enhance their overall communication skills. In Unit 1, students focus on developing language and communication skills, primarily through the study of a variety of texts. They develop communication skills in order to listen, speak, read and write effectively in academic, workplace and social contexts. In Unit 2, students focus on the structures and features of written language in both handwritten and digital texts and create their own workrelated texts. Senior Literacy: The purpose of this unit is to enable students to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes to read and write complex texts. The texts will deal with general situations and include some abstract concepts or technical details. Students produce texts that incorporate a range of ideas, information, beliefs or processes and have control of the language devices appropriate to the type of text. In reading, students identify the views shaping the text and the devices used to present that view and express an opinion on the effectiveness and content of the text. An
oral communication unit complements their Literacy skills development. Numeracy in VCAL enables students to develop everyday numeracy skills to make sense of their daily personal and public lives. Numeracy skills corresponding with these social contexts include mathematical knowledge and techniques, financial literacy, planning and organising, measurement, data, representation, design, problem-solving, and using software tools and devices. Students then develop, refine, extend and apply numeracy knowledge and skills through an investigation in a familiar industry area linked to the VET units in their VCAL program or employment. The numeracy involved focuses on Number, Measurement, Financial Numeracy, and Probability and Statistics. This unit seeks to extend students’ understanding of how numerical knowledge and skills can be transferred to an industry area. The key processes involve identifying mathematics, applying it and communicating the results. These topics are repeated at the Senior level, but require students to explore mathematics beyond its familiar and everyday use to its application in wider, less personal contexts such as newspapers and other media reports, workplace documents and procedures, and specific projects at home or in the community. Students may have the option, at both Intermediate and Senior level, to undertake VCE Further Maths as the Numeracy component of their VCAL program. Mathematical performance throughout the preceding year will be considered.
