Pixel International Conferences

In response to rising levels of youth unemployment, some nations have adopted system-wide strategies to increase participation in education and training, in the belief that completion of a senior high school certificate or its vocational equivalent will improve life outcomes for young people.

In this context, the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL), was introduced in 2002 as a systemic learning approach to augment traditional senior high schooling in the State of Victoria, Australia.

This presentation examines how this relatively new approach to schooling in Australia is understood to have a positive impact on students’ learning and development. 

A brief outline of the applied learning principles underpinning the program is discussed, and a program outline is provided. Activity Theory and the associated theories of Boundary Crossing and Expansive Learning (Engestrom, 1987, 1999, 2009) are used as a framework to conceptualise the operation of the program structure and how the learning is occurring.

A contemporary critique of VCAL is offered, based on a brief review of relevant literature, my ethnographic research into a VCAL program, and on my practice as a facilitator and observer of VCAL programs and initiatives since 2005.