By Emma Sun
TEACHERS and students from St Francis Xavier College in Beaconsfield are calling on the government to bring back funding for applied learning programs.
The government has cut $12 million in funding for VCAL program co-ordinators, which school principal Paul Desmond said will be detrimental to the program.
However the government said it has increased core VCAL funding and that the cuts were to money to help with the introduction of the program.
But Mr Desmond said the co-ordination cut would have a detrimental effect on students.
“We’re in our fourth year of VCAL and young men and women are finding it a great pathway into their career futures,” Mr Desmond said.
“As a result of being such an authentic form of education, it needs to be supported and at the same time, we realise we rely heavily on the government to finance it.
The college’s VCAL director Gary Keet said the decision to cut funding for co-ordinators would be harmful for schools and their students.
“The main role of the co-ordinator is to make sure the students are attending their classes and we sometimes go out and do visits with their training organisations to make sure their courses are going OK,” Mr Keet said.
“It’s going to make it difficult for us to go out to visit the students when they’re on their jobs.
“Although we can talk to them at school, seeing them in that setting is so valuable to check on how they’re going. I need time to go out and do that and the funding covers that.”
However, Eastern Victoria Region MP Edward O’Donohue said there were no cuts for the programs, and the government had increased funding by more than $10 million in this year’s budget.
“The change relates to the co-ordination payment, which was established to assist with the introduction of VCAL in 2003,” he said.
“VCAL has been running for eight years and is now well embedded in school programs. “The argument supporting a special co-ordination payment is now not as strong. The changes should have no impact on students undertaking VCAL.”
“The Coalition is committed to supporting VCAL and VET programs in schools.
“They are a wonderful alternative for many students and the government will continue to support these successful programs to meet demand.”
