VELS curriculum is structured into three areas of learning:
• Physical, Personal and Social Learning - this focuses on Health and Physical Education, Interpersonal Development, Personal Learning and Civics and Citizenship
• Discipline-based Learning - involves subjects such as Art, Mathematics, English, Science, Languages and Humanities such as Geography, Economics and History
• Interdisciplinary Learning - focuses on Communication, Design, Creativity, Information Communication and Technology (ICT) and thinking processes.
Students in Victoria after completing year 10 have the option of studying Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) or International Baccalaureate IB diploma (only offered in some private schools).
The Victorian Certificate of Education is the certificate that majority of students in Victoria receive upon satisfactory completion of their secondary education. The VCE provides diverse pathways to further study or training at University or TAFE and to employment. There are many subjects that are offered for VCE, however the width of selection depends on individual schools. Each VCE subject is studied in units numbered 1, 2, 3 or 4. Units 1 and 2 are studied in year 11 while units 3 and 4 are completed in year 12. Students can also study VCE unit 1 and 2 subjects in year 10 however this option is only offered to high academic achieving students. In order to successfully complete VCE, students are required to study a minimum of 4 subjects and a maximum of 6 subjects. For students to be considered for admission into the universities they must sit for the VCE examination which is similar to KSCE examination in Kenya. Their performance is ranked by The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), the primary criterion for entry into most undergraduate-entry university programs in Australia. The ATAR is a percentile score given between "less than 30" up to 99.95 (in a minimum increment of 0.05) which denotes a student's ranking relative to their peers upon completion of their secondary education. The ATAR score is used by university and tertiary education programs as a clear and intuitive ranking to select prospective applicants for their programs.
Students who do not wish to study at the university complete the VCAL program. The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) is a hands-on option for students in Years 11 and 12. The VCAL gives you practical work-related experience, as well as literacy and numeracy skills and the opportunity to build personal skills that are important for life and work. Like the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), VCAL is an accredited secondary certificate. Not all schools offer VCAL program however it is available in most government schools. Students who complete this program end up joining Technical and Further Education or TAFE which are institutions that provide a wide range of predominantly vocational tertiary education courses such as Business, Finance, Hospitality, Tourism, Construction, Engineering, Visual Arts, IT and Social Work.
The International Baccalaureate (IB) is an international education diploma program offered only by some private schools in Victoria. The IB curriculum is rigorous and consists of the diploma program- DP core and six subject groups. The three DP core elements are -