VET

__Vocational Education and Training __


 * “Vocational Education and Training (VET) is a term used to describe education and training arrangements designed to prepare people for work or to improve the knowledge and skills of people who are already working” **

Lake Ginninderra is a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) and thus able to offer work-based training which has been approved at a national level. There are 12 vocational courses on offer. These are competency based and students can graduate with Certificate II or statement of attainment qualifications, which are recognised across Australia.

Vocational Courses: The College Curriculum Handbook 2011 encourages students to include a vocational course in their student package:
 * ** Automotive Technology **
 * Business Administration **
 * Furniture Construction **
 * Hospitality **
 * Information Technology **
 * Media ** || ** Metal Engineering **
 * Music Industry **
 * Outdoor Education **
 * Social and Community Work **
 * Sport and Recreation **
 * Tourism ** ||

//“Students should consider including a vocational course in their study package." //

We spoke to Kerrie Sollis, who told us more about the VET program: By offering VET courses at the college, students are given the option of obtaining certificate II – whilst still at school. If they wish, they can then go on to Training and Further Education (TAFE, also know as CIT in Canberra), sequentially earning certificate III, certificate IV, diploma and advanced diploma. Generally, although dependant on the course, a student can gain qualifications that can help them enter into University in two years, and can also earn 1 year credit, which frees them from the first year of study in their University degree. The benefit of this is that they have that extra qualification, having gone through TAFE first. Universities often encourage this, as the qualification generally comes alongside more practical and work-related experience.

//“The vocational stream is tied into the academic stream”. //

As V courses are competency based, students gain their qualification by default (//Cert II //, or, if they have not achieved enough to merit Cert II, //statement of attainment //). This does mean significantly more work for teachers, who have to look at competencies as well as grading the students. Not anyone can teach VET and other schools, who are not RTOs, would have to recommend students to go to TAFE.

// “At Lake Ginniderra we try to cater for everyone. Some people find it hard to find that motivation to come into school. That day // // in the workplace that they look forward to can make all the difference.” //