Section 6: Completion of Victorian Senior Secondary certificates
Data source: 2020 data were extracted from the VCAA Assessment Processing System (APS) database at 4 January 2021 (Published).
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Section 6
This section shows the number and percentage of 19 years olds who have completed VCE and/or VCAL (at Intermediate or Senior certificate level).
The Table below shows over the last 10 years, the number of young people by age 19 who completed the VCE/VCAL (Intermediate or Senior level) has risen from 51,987 in 2011 to 56,971 in 2020. The VCE/VCAL completion rate by age 19 in 2020 was 77.6%. This is 3.4 percentage points higher than that in 2011.
This Table also shows that:
- By age 19 in 2020, there were 49,174 (49,113 plus 61) young people who completed the VCE.
- An increasing number of young people are completing only the VCAL certificate at an Intermediate and/or Senior level. In 2011 there were 4,444 young people aged 19 who completed a VCAL certificate at an Intermediate and/or Senior level. In 2020 this has increased to 7,797.
Table 1: Contributions of VCE/VCALa towards the completion of a Senior Secondary Certificate by 19 year olds
| | 19 Year olds cohortb | |
|---|
| | VCE/VCAL completions | | VCE/VCAL completion rate |
|---|
| Yearc | VCE only | VCE & VCAL | VCAL only | Total | Population | VCE only | VCE & VCAL | VCAL only | Total |
|---|
| 2011 | 46,480 | 1,063 | 4,444 | 51,987 | 70,047 | 66.4 | 1.5 | 6.3 | 74.2 |
| 2012 | 47,394 | 1,094 | 4,813 | 53,301 | 70,323 | 67.4 | 1.6 | 6.8 | 75.8 |
| 2013 | 47,640 | 1,039 | 5,315 | 53,994 | 70,583 | 67.5 | 1.5 | 7.5 | 76.5 |
| 2014 | 47,574 | 1,310 | 5,935 | 54,819 | 71,670 | 66.4 | 1.8 | 8.3 | 76.5 |
| 2015 | 47,530 | 821 | 6,649 | 55,000 | 71,190 | 66.8 | 1.2 | 9.3 | 77.3 |
| 2016 | 48,581 | 118 | 7,912 | 56,611 | 71,857 | 67.6 | 0.2 | 11.0 | 78.8 |
| 2017 | 48,544 | 84 | 7,761 | 56,389 | 71,916 | 67.5 | 0.1 | 10.8 | 78.4 |
| 2018 | 49,354 | 82 | 7,932 | 57,368 | 72,683 | 67.9 | 0.1 | 10.9 | 78.9 |
| 2019 | 50,137 | 70 | 7,751 | 57,958 | 73,494 | 68.2 | 0.1 | 10.5 | 78.9 |
| 2020 | 49,113 | 61 | 7,797 | 56,971 | 73,382 | 66.9 | 0.1 | 10.6 | 77.6 |
a Includes satisfactorily completion at an Intermediate and/or Senior level.
b Population figures are sourced from ABS Cat:3101.0, Australian Demographic Statistics, June 2020.
The Estimated Resident Population of 17 year olds two years earlier is used as the population for the aged 19 cohort. This is to mitigate the impact of migration of young people after leaving school. The adoption of this age group for the calculation of completion rate by age 19 is consistent with DET’s approach. In the previous report, the population of 19 year olds was used as a denominator to calculate the completion rates.
c The 2016 - 2020 estimated resident population figures are preliminary.
It should be noted that the Department of Education and Training (DET) publishes the attainment rates of Year 12 or equivalent at age 19. Apart from VCE and VCAL, the attainment also includes International Baccalaureate and non-school qualifications at an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Level 2 or higher (i.e. Certificate II and above).
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