The Victorian State Government has announced a $293.5 million initiative for vocational and language education in the government schools.

 

Victorian Minister for Education Martin Dixon announced the funding, saying the initiative will be aimed at supporting diversity of choice in the state education system. The announcement made by the minister includes $32.8 million over four years to continue the delivery of Vocational Education and Training in Schools in government schools.

“We have increased government funding from $120 to $190 for every student, at a cost of $16.3 million over five years, to increase Victoria's multilingual capacity and expand the pool of qualified speakers of languages other than English.” Mr Dixon said.

 

The announcement of the training program comes as Mr Dixon revealed a $2.5 million over four years for 25 School Specialisation Grants for government schools to specialise in different fields such as robotics, multimedia, fashion, languages, design or horticulture.

 

The outlined goals of the School Specialisation Grants have been published as follows:

  • increasing student engagement by providing a more relevant and fulfilling educational experience in an educational environment tailored to specific abilities or needs;
  • providing students with more opportunities for learning in greater depth and breadth in a specific area;
  • providing students with programs designed to give them access to high-level expertise that is often not available to students at their normal school;
  • providing students with more intensive learning experiences that require specialist equipment or scarce expertise;
  • providing students with expanded pathways into specialised employment in areas such as the arts, sport and science – for example, the pathways on offer at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, Maribyrnong Secondary College and the John Monash Science School.