Vocational Education & Training (VET)

QCEC’s role in VET

The Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Schools Grant Funding Allocation is administered and distributed to Catholic dioceses and schools via QCEC. The purpose of this funding is to set out operational targets and activities which assist Catholic schools to align their VET in Schools activity to the Department of Employment Small Business and Training’s VET Investment Plan including addressing industry needs, skill shortages and managing the implementation of the new VET Funding Framework. Funding is disbursed from QCEC for:

• Supporting schools to respond to industry needs through VET delivery as it aligns to the VET Investment Plan
• Increasing participation in School-Based Apprenticeships and Traineeships or other trades related vocational courses targeted to industry priorities
• Supporting schools in the transition to the VETiS Funding Framework
• Developing strategies to maintain quality standards in VET in Schools including professional development.
• Increasing participation in, and access to, VET in Schools within rural and remote areas and for educationally
  disadvantaged students including Indigenous students and students with a disability.

The QCEC secretariat also provides general services and advice to schools and school authorities on issues related to VET.

Some useful links:

Queensland Department of Education
School-based apprenticeships and traineeships procedures
Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority (QCAA)
VET – vocational education and training
Queensland Government Training
Training courses and pathways
Apprenticeship and Traineeship Information
School-based Apprenticeship and Traineeship
Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA)
National regulator of Registered Training Organisations
Gateway to Industry Schools Program (GISP)
Gateway schools
Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Skills and training

VET in schools funding

QCEC receives an amount of funding each year from the Queensland Government’s VET Investment Plan to support VET in schools.  This funding is distributed to schools via Catholic School Authority (CSA) and is provided to:

• promote VET in schools.
• provide seed funding for school-based apprenticeships and traineeships (SATs). The latest version of the Education,Training and Employment Schedule is available on the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training website and is provided to assist schools to record agreed arrangements for SATs.

• subsidise access and equity arrangements through:

  1. travel and accommodation allowance and
  2. financial subsidies for students with special needs.

Travel and Accommodation Allowance

Send completed forms to vet@qcec.catholic.edu.au.

• Guidelines
• Claim Form

Guidelines for Access and Equity Support for Students With Disability

Send completed forms to vet@qcec.catholic.edu.au.

• Guidelines
• Application Form

Training and Work Placement

School-based Apprenticeships and Traineeships

School-based apprenticeships and traineeships (SATs) allow secondary school students to work for an employer, train towards a recognised qualification, and complete their secondary school studies.  A flexible school program allows students to effectively combine a school-based apprenticeship or traineeship (SAT) while studying for their Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) and/or Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).

Structured Workplace Learning

In Queensland the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) has developed Structured Workplace Learning as an individualised course that can be offered in years 10, 11 or 12.  The QCAA has developed a quality assurance process to recognise such informal learning courses that may contribute to the achievement of a Queensland Certificate of Education.

Work Experience

A work experience placement provides an opportunity to extend the learning in the classroom into the practice application in the workplace.  It provides a formal arrangement whereby students, while enrolled at school, participate in the activities of a place of voluntary or paid work.

Work Shadowing

Work shadowing provides students with the opportunity to learn actively about people at work and to examine the work role they perform. Students gain access to occupational areas that may not be suited to work sampling, e.g. lawyer, dentist, chemist. The focus of work shadowing is the role of the worker(s) being shadowed, rather than the performance of work tasks or the investigation of the workplace.

Work Sampling

A work sampling placement is one in which students have the opportunity to test personal vocational preferences through performing tasks in a workplace. Students select placements according to their future occupational aspirations. The student may experience the following outcomes:

• clarification of employment goals
• first-hand information about what it means to work, as well as about the work processes of the organization and the work environment

Insurance Information

Work Experience Insurance

• WorkCover Queensland Certificate of Currency (The Corporation of the Roman Catholic Bishops of Queensland)
• Queensland Government Insurance Fund Certificate of Currency

Workers’ Compensation

Under Queensland legislation, the Education (Work Experience) Act 1996, a student from a state or non-state school must not start a work experience placement until the Department of Education has in place a contract of insurance indemnifying the student and work experience provider against liability for personal injury or property damage, suffered by the student, the work experience provider or another person, arising out of the work experience”.

Queensland Catholic Education Commission takes out a central WorkCover policy to cover workers compensation for all students undertaking work experience in Catholic secondary schools.

The contract for WorkCover insurance between WorkCover and Queensland Catholic Education Commission covers:

• death
• permanent impairment
• medical costs associated with injury while a student is on work experience.

Liability Insurance

Currently this insurance is free to Non-State Schools. The Department of Education has an arrangement with an insurer to indemnify students from state and non-state schools and work experience providers (employers) on approved work experience placements. The policy provides for the following:

• indemnifies the work experience provider against liability in the event that a student is injured while on the premises of the work experience provider, or at another location, while carrying out work experience duties on behalf of the work experience provider
• indemnifies the student against liability if the work experience provider or an employee is injured, or the student damages property
• indemnifies the work experience provider and the student where injury or damage to the property of a third party arises out of the work experience.

Access to the two forms of protection is available only when the principal of a prescribed school has signed a written agreement with the work experience provider to place a particular student on work experience. Schools must use the work experience agreement form provided by the Department of Education.

The liability insurance is provided subject to the terms and conditions of the policy, which specifically excludes various activities. The detail of excluded activities and more information about the insurance arrangements is provided here.

Insurance for School-based Apprenticeships and Traineeships (SATs)

The insurance for SATs is the employer’s responsibility as the student is receiving payment for her/his services.

Important details regarding work experience and insurance: Schools are encouraged to access the Work experience placement for school students  procedure on the Department of Education website to make sure that all aspects of work experience are covered, particularly with insurance. The procedure provides links to supporting documentation and websites.