Vocational Studies in School – Does it Matter if I’m a Girl and if I’m Poor?

Abstract

This article examines the participation and performance of young women in a new school-based vocational certificate in the Australian state of Victoria – the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL). It does so within a broader context of developments in the provision of vocational education and training (VET) in schools and persistent patterns of gender and socio-economic status differences in curriculum choice in Australia and other Western nations. This article presents evidence that young women experience demonstrably poorer transitions than their male peers from the VCAL program, facing a greater risk of unemployment and part-time work. Subject to a labour market which has becom..