What does your state/territory understand by the terms:

• vocational learning and
• structured workplace learning?

Vocational Learning is general learning that has a vocational perspective. It includes elements such as general employability skills, enterprise education, career education and community and work-based learning. All students should experience vocational learning at each year level throughout their schooling. Vocational learning is appropriate for all years of schooling and when integrated into the school curriculum, it enables students to adapt to the changes that are going to be a constant feature of their lives. It enhances students’ transition to a broad range of post-school options and pathways. It engages students in work-related learning built on strategic partnerships between schools, business, industry and the wider community.

Structured workplace learning is the involvement of students in structured on-the-job training during which they are expected to demonstrate their learning of a designated set of skills and competencies related to the course accredited by the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) which they are undertaking. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) has determined that structured workplace learning is an appropriate and valuable component of all VCE VET programs.

What initiatives/programs are being planned or implemented in your state/territory in vocational learning and structured workplace learning and in what years?

Vocational learning

In the compulsory years of schooling, vocational learning takes place in the school curriculum outside of formal VET programs, notably through the development of employability skills that all young people need to acquire if they are to succeed in a rapidly changing labour market. Curriculum in the compulsory years of schooling provides opportunities for students to build these employability skills. Within the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS), there is considerable potential to use applied learning approaches to improve the teaching of employability skills. Many of the learning domains in the VELS include standards for generic and employability skills such as communication, team work, problem-solving, learning, planning and organising, self-management and technology. The VCAA provides sample units of work to illustrate how employability skills or vocational learning can be incorporated specifically into teaching and learning programs in Years 9 and 10.

In the post-compulsory years, students undertaking the Victorian Certificate of education (VCE) or the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) acquire vocational learning skills via the school curriculum through formal VET programs. Students can also undertake workplace learning to improve their understanding of the work environment and employers’ expectations, to explore possible career options, and to increase their self-understanding, maturity, independence and self-confidence. Workplace learning includes both work experience and structured workplace learning. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) has developed a range of resources to assist in preparing students for workplace learning.

VCAL students can also experience vocational learning through Work Related Skills (WRS), one of the four strands in VCAL that student undertake. The purpose of the Work Related Skills strand is to develop employability skills and knowledge and attitudes valued within community and work environments as a preparation for employment.

VCE or VCAL students who undertake Industry and Enterprise Studies also have the opportunity to experience vocational learning. The central theme of Industry and Enterprise is work and its place in Australian industry and society. The study recognises the vocational, economic, social and cultural aspects of work and encourages students to undertake a theoretical and practical investigation of these aspects throughout the four units. A key feature of the study is the requirement that students undertake work outside the classroom in order to develop a range of lifelong and work-related skills that include key competencies, employability skills and enterprise skills.

The Managed Individual Pathways (MIPs) program has been implemented to ensure that all students 15 years and older in Victorian government schools have current individual pathway plans and associated support to enable them a successful transition through the post-compulsory years to further education, training or full-time employment.

Victoria has also introduced a statewide network of 31 Local Learning and Employment Networks (LLENs) to improve the education, training and employment outcomes of young people, particularly those disengaged from education, training and employment or at risk of disengagement. This is achieved through local planning and the creation and further development of sustainable relationships, partnerships and brokering of initiatives between local education providers, industry and the community.

Structured work place learning

In Victoria, as students need to be 15 years of age to undertake structured workplace learning, students in the compulsory years undertake work experience. Work experience is the short-term placement of students with employers to provide insights into the industry and the workplace in which they are located. The DEECD has developed a number of resources to support the implementation of structured workplace learning and work experience in Victoria. Note: In the post-compulsory years, VCE and VCAL students who undertake VET in Schools or the VCE Industry and Enterprise Studies are strongly encouraged to do structured workplace learning as part of their program of study.

What is the rationale for having vocational learning and structured workplace learning in the compulsory years?

As Victorian students need to be 15 years of age to undertake structured workplace learning, many students in the compulsory years, particularly Years 9 and 10, undertake work experience. Both vocational learning and work experience enable the acquisition of employability and lifelong learning skills. They provide an opportunity to explore possible career options and the opportunity to improve understanding of the work environment and employer expectations.

How are the vocational learning initiatives/programs in the compulsory years linked to those in the post-compulsory years?

Both vocational learning and work experience enable the acquisition of employability and lifelong learning skills. They provide an opportunity to explore possible career options and the opportunity to improve understanding of the work environment and employer expectations. Links between vocational learning initiatives/programs in the compulsory years and those in the post-compulsory years compulsory years include the availability of VET in Schools programs for Year 10 students.

How might any issues identified in the middle years of schooling (see 3. above in Middle Years of Schooling) impact on vocational learning in Years 9 and 10? What are the curriculum implications?

The major issue arising from the middle years of schooling is the need for the VELS to be used in preparation for the vocational interests which are taken up in much more detail in Years 9 and 10; the VELS provides a range of ways of addressing this issue for the middle years.