Education

Part of the role of the Selection Officer for the Graduate Diploma in Education (secondary) is to give advice to students regarding selection for the course as well as to give advice regarding students' qualifications to undertake teaching methods. This is only advice and it is based on the information available to the school officer(s) which to the best of their knowledge is correct at the time. The Victorian Institute of Teaching as the registration body is the determining authority.

Advice that is given is based on the Specialist Area Guidelines as published by the VIT (The selection officer makes decisions on VTAC applications based on these guidelines.)

Prospective applicants can write directly to the VIT for Assessment of Qualifications.

Victorian Institute of Teaching, PO Box 531, Collins St West, Victoria, 8007.

On-line only at www.vtac.edu.au from Monday 30 July 2007. Look for Postgraduate Applications and close Friday 28th September 2007, but late applications (incurring a late fee) are accepted up until Friday 16 November, 2007.

We have 3 different VTAC course codes for Bendigo for the 3 different modes:

• Commonwealth funded places, full time: 93111
• Commonwealth funded places, part time: 93121
• Domestic Fee paying places: 93112

Make sure that you choose the correct code on your VTAC application.

When VTAC applications are exhausted, the School may decide to offer a limited number of domestic fee paying places via direct application. If you are interested, please contact the School in late January to ascertain if such positions will be offered.

You require an undergraduate degree which provides you with discipline studies to undertake Teaching Methods in two curriculum areas. If you are still studying 3rd year, you can apply and your results will be directed to VTAC when you complete at the end of the year.

Offers are usually made in the second week of January and enrolment is within a week, so you need to be available at that time to accept your offer and enrol. If you can't attend enrolment you may arrange for someone to enrol on your behalf as long as they have a letter from you giving them authority and the required information.

Yes – it is 5 days a week particularly in first semester. Some Methods are run out of business hours or in alternate block modes. Part-time is possible, but the course cannot be done by distance education. Deakin University have a distance education course conducted over 2 years.

We do find that many of our students are still able to do some part-time work around their class commitments should they choose to.

This can be negotiated with the Practicum Coordinator. Students often arrange to have practical placement closer to home, in Melbourne or elsewhere in the State.

You can check this out for yourself at: http://www.vit.vic.edu.au/files/documents/573_VIT_specialist_area_guidelines_2003.doc

If you feel you situation is not clear you can write to the VIT or you can contact the Selection Officer. We will need a copy of your academic transcript(s) to provide advice.

The grade point average is a calculation carried out by VTAC according to a formula to rank you on merit for selection into courses. More information about this can be accessed on the VTAC web page.

Generally, selection for the course is based on your ranking according to the GPA.  However, this additional information may be valuable to selection officers in some cases, and you may provide it by filling in the Personal Information (Pi) form on-line.

Yes the course is widely recognised. With regard to Method areas, some methods available in this course are not actual subject areas recognised in every other Australian State , for example Outdoor Education is not a subject taken in NSW. Therefore, it is wise if you intend to teach in another State to ensure that the method areas you want to undertake are suitable. You will need to contact the teacher registration authority in that State to do this.

No, we don't allow deferrals in this course. We expect that some methods such as English, SOSE, Outdoor Education, Visual Art and History will run yearly because we get a large number of quality applicants for those methods. For less popular methods we have to make a decision based on the number of applicants and the availability of staff. It is wise to apply to a number of institutions. This year you can list preferences for 4 institutions.