9-12 Course Selection Guide - Mount Eliza Secondary College

Senior Program OptionsWhat are VCE , VCAL and VET?General InformationMount Eliza Secondary College offers a range of post-compulsory education courses and subjects. The courseshave three main pathways—Scored VCE, Non-Scored VCE and VCAL. The College also offers a number ofVocational Education and Training (VET) programs.VCE: VICTORIAN CERTIFICATE OF EDUCATIONThe Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) is the certificate that the majority of students in Victoria receive onsatisfactory completion of their secondary education. The VCE provides diverse pathways to further study ortraining at university or TAFE and to employment. The Victorian Certificate of Education is generally taught inYear 11 and 12, however many students commence their VCE studies in Year 10. Under some circumstancesstudents can chose to undertake a “Year 13” to complete their VCE studies.All VCE studies are organised into units (VCE subjects typically consist of four units; each unit covers onesemester of study). Each unit comprises a set number of outcomes (usually two or three); an outcome describesthe knowledge and skills that a student should demonstrate by the time the student has completed the unit. Oncompleting a unit, a student receives either a 'satisfactory' (S) or 'non-satisfactory' (N) result. Students are notrequired to complete all the units of a subject as part of the VCE course, meaning they are able to change subjectchoice between Year 11 and Year 12. The minimum requirements for completing the VCE is 16 satisfactory unitsover Units 1-4, with at least 3 of these being from an English subject.NON-SCORED VCEIf a student does not intend to proceed to certain courses in tertiary education, a 'satisfactory' result is all that isrequired to graduate with the VCE. This is the Non-Scored VCE Pathway. Students undertake all work,assessments and examinations as per the Scored VCE in Year 11. In Year 12, students who have elected toundertake a non-scored VCE will undertake the assessments (SACs) as per normal however, they will only bescored Satisfactory or Non-satisfactory. If students are scored unsatisfactory in these SACs they will be given analternative means of meeting the required outcomes. Students undertaking a non-scored VCE pathway will not sitthe end of year 12 examinations.SCORED VCEIf a student does wish to study at a tertiary level which requires an ATAR then a student must satisfactorilycomplete their VCE with both “S” results for Units 3 and 4 in any subject in the English field (at least one Englishfield subject is compulsory) and at least sixteen units in total. They will need to complete all of their SACs and sitall their end of Year 12 examinations.