The School Pathways to VET Award recognises eligible organisations including schools, registered training organisations, industry bodies, employers that have collaboratively delivered an excellent vocational education and training (VET) program to secondary school students.
St Columban’s College is a Catholic secondary college in south-east Queensland. The college delivers 16 qualifications across ten industry areas, reflecting the diversity of the community’s employment opportunities. In 2013, 98 per cent of students graduated with a nationally recognised qualification, 76 per cent at the Certificate III level and 17 per cent at Certificate IV.
At the 2014 Australian Training Awards, St Columban’s College was awarded the national School Pathways to VET Award for its outstanding provision of vocational education and training (VET) pathways to its students.
Principal, Ann Regbetz could not be more pleased with the win.
"The Australian Training Awards serves as a rigorous benchmarking tool for continuous improvement of VET across Australia. I feel we won this award because our outstanding results are based on real outcomes and real data that meet the needs of the world we live in," Ann said.
St Columban’s has close relationships with the local business community and has established an enterprising Trade Training Centre to enhance the delivery of training in hairdressing, kitchen operations and hospitality. It is a Gateway school for wine tourism and its science wing has been expanded, and a laboratory skills qualification added, to allow the study of wine chemistry. More than 1000 employers have hosted its students for work placements, validation of training plans and over 100 Australian School-based Apprenticeships annually.
St Columban’s also offers employment opportunities, with 17 trainees employed in the areas of information technology, hospitality and sport and recreation.
"Being acknowledged as the best in Australia means the validation of the unique Every Student Every Success Educational Blueprint developed by us over the last five years. It means that the Blueprint can be adopted by other schools and colleges which aspire to delivering a balanced and dynamic curriculum, which provides opportunities for excellence, equity for students by valuing, and having equal access to, vocational and academic skills," Ann said.