VCE or VCAL?

I often get asked the question, usually from year 9 or 10 students "what is the difference between VCE and VCAL?"  Good question.

I'll keep it as brief as possible, so here we go:

• Firstly, Year 12 VCE and year 12 VCAL are both year 12 passes. In other words if you get to the end of year 12 in either of the two, you have passed year 12.
• In VCE you study subjects of your choice (English is compulsory). Usually 6 subjects in year 11 and 5 in year 12.
• Year 11 subjects are unit 1 in first semester and unit 2 in second semester. Year 12 subjects are unit 3 in first semester and unit 4 in second semester. You CAN do year 11 subjects in year 10 if you are accepted into an acceleration subject.
• If you study VCAL, you will usually do Intermediate VCAL in year 11 and Senior VCAL in year 12. 
• VCAL has four curriculum areas, called strands. These strands are:
  Literacy and Numeracy Skills
  Industry Specific Skills
   Work Related Skills
   Personal Development Skills.
  A student’s VCAL learning program must include studies in each strand 
  
  
   
• At the end of year 12 in VCE, all of your subject scores (study scores) which includes your exam marks, are added together to give what's called an "aggregate score" this is then ranked against everyone else IN THE STATE to get your ATAR score.
• If you study VCAL, you can't get an ATAR, which generally means you are cutting off your options of going STRAIGHT to university. However, there are other ways to get to uni as a VCAL student, but that's another story.....

Cheers.