Ms Jan Miletic honoured with VCAA Chair’s Award

Catherine McAuley College congratulates Ms Jan Miletic, a teacher at St Mary’s Campus, who recently received the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) Chair’s Award at a ceremony in Melbourne.

Ms Miletic has been a panel member for the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) Quality Assurance Loddon Mallee since 2013 and was the panel leader for 2022. The role of the panel is to work and assist VCAL provider schools in the region and also run the VCAA Quality Assurance sessions for the region.

Ms Miletic particularly acknowledged the support of two locally based panel members, Brydie Rowland (Kalianna School Bendigo) and Daniel Gibbons (Bendigo Senior Secondary College).

Ms Miletic said, “I have been working as a teacher for forty years. I have always worked with students who had limited interest in academia but had highly developed skills and motivation to work in trades areas. So VCAL was a natural progression and eventually these became my classes of choice.

“A highlight of my work was the senior VCAL class of 2013 who won the Mt Alexander Shire Australian of the Year Youth awards for their volunteer work in the community.”

In 2023 the Victorian Certificate of Education Vocational Major (VCEVM) and Victorian Pathways Certificate (VPC) programs were introduced, which provide high-quality, relevant vocational education and applied learning opportunities.

“This is necessary for students who do not want a traditional academic pathway and are looking to enter the workplace in other ways. However, VCAL and VCEVM/VPC are still academically organised in terms of literacy and numeracy, but also require students to show competence in a variety of skills including their Vocational Education and Training (VET) subjects. A number of Catherine McAuley College (CMC) students have used the VCAL pathway to gain apprenticeships and complete pathway certificates in TAFE to become accredited in their careers.”

Ms Miletic has also worked closely with the Victorian Applied Learning Association (VALA), a professional, not-for-profit, teachers’ organisation offering professional development.

See below for more information about the VCAA Chair’s Award 2022

About the VCAA Chair’s Award 2023

VCAL Quality Assurance Panel Leaders, 2022

Gayle Anderson, Fran Davey, Loretta Goldsmith, Narelle Holliday, Deborah Hubbard, Travis McIntosh, Jan Miletic, Cherie Osta, Andrew Reynolds, Tracey Sefach, Hayley Wilson

VCAA Chair’s Award recipients work on land across many Koori Nations.

The VCAA Chair’s Award recognises outstanding achievement by an individual or an organisation in the delivery and promotion of VCAL in their community or region.

This year’s award is presented to the VCAL Quality Assurance Panel Leaders of 2022. The award recognises their outstanding contribution and support towards the delivery and promotion of VCAL and applied learning across Victoria through coordination of the VCAL quality assurance (QA) process, and as champions of VCAL in their schools and communities.

The Quality Assurance Panel Leaders chaired the VCAL QA panels in their regions, providing leadership and ensuring the success of the QA process. They organised all elements of the QA process in their region, including convening panel meetings, supervising and participating in the QA process of VCAL units, providing feedback to providers, distributing and collecting templates, organising venues, and providing advice ad support to VCAL coordinators and teachers. They were the conduit between the QA process and the VCAA, liaising regularly, forwarding examples of best practice in their region and reporting outcomes of each stage of the QA process.