Re-engaging young people through applied learning pedagogy

The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) was developed as an innovative response to the changing context post-compulsory schooling in Australia. By combining ‘hands-on’ learning approaches with the traditions of adult learning, the VCAL seeks to cater for the learning temperaments and employment pathways of post-compulsory students who are less likely to remain at school to complete a more traditional Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). This paper draws on my doctoral research into the schooling experience of VCAL students to explore the irony in using adult and work-based learning principles that underpin applied learning pedagogy as a strategy to reengage students frequently considered by schools to be ‘at risk’. It argues that traditional contentdriven and transmissive approaches result in some students being defined ‘at risk’ because of their failure to accept as legitimate traditional school-based modes of learning. It is proposed that teachers in secondary schools require a deeper understanding of applied learning principles and teaching strategies in order to cater for the increasing numbers of applied learning students in the post-compulsory years of secondary schools. It is argued that such an understanding is also critical to avoid many of such students being incorrectly labelled ‘at risk’.