FUNDING cuts to Carrum Downs Secondary College's Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning program will cause other programs at the school to be sacrificed, its principal says.
Marie Walker says the VCAL program must be saved.
During a visit to the college last Wednesday, opposition education spokesman Rob Hulls said the school would lose $108,000 from its VCAL co-ordination budget, under statewide cuts of $12 million a year.
"The government has little understanding about how the program operates in practice and its labour-intensive nature. VCAL co-ordinators are mentors and they guide the students," Mr Hulls told the Weekly.
He said Carrum Downs Secondary was well known for its VCAL programs and providing important industry experience.
"I'm urging this school and others with VCAL programs to contact the minister and demand transitional funding."
Carrum Downs Secondary College has won numerous awards for its flexible-learning programs, which incorporate VCAL to provide students with hands-on industry experience.
Cranbourne MP Jude Perera said the school was purpose-built to accommodate VCAL programs. "Over 100 students take part in this much needed VCAL program at Carrum Downs Secondary," Mr Perera said.
Just last week, the school was presented with the $10,000 VET (Vocational Education and Training) schools excellence award at the Victorian Training Awards.
News of the funding cuts meant that the win was bitter-sweet.
Ms Walker said the VCAL program was keeping students in school and she would not let the funding cuts affect this trend.
"Once upon a time, when I started working, kids would leave school at 14 or 15 and walk into an apprenticeship. It isn't like that any more and I love that we get to hang on to them for a lot of years, until they are confident 17 or 18 year olds. It is the best part of our job.
"Unfortunately, it will probably mean cuts in other areas; things like the hands-on learning program are really expensive and time is money so the time our leading teachers had this year might be hard to achieve now. We have to protect VCAL."
A spokesman for Education Minister Martin Dixon said the funding for students to undertake the VCAL program had increased from $100.6 million last year to $111.2 million this year.
"The changes to the funding arrangements purely relate to the co-ordination of the program and not the actual funding for students.
"The program was established in 2003 with the co-ordination funding provided to assist with the establishment of the program.
"Given the fact the program has been running effectively for eight years and as a result of additional support provided by workplace-learning co-ordinators and local learning and employment networks, there should be no impact on students."
VCAL teacher of the year Katrina King, who teaches at Carrum Downs Secondary College, said the school was hoping to extend its applied-learning program.
College staff will soon travel to the UK to visit and learn from six schools that specialise in applied learning, she said.
"We now have an award-winning curriculum but we want to implement high quality, whole-school applied learning. In the future VCAL and VET will be what people do in senior school."
Email a friend