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Senior Secondary Certificate Statistical Information 2020

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).

If you have any concerns or comments, please contact the Data Analysis, Measurement and Reporting Unit on (03) 9032 1784.

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).

 

Back to 2020 VCE, VCE VET and VCAL statistical information page