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Jonah Heta was struggling just to get to classes at Gleneagles Secondary College last year; now he’s first to arrive each morning.
Since finishing school, the 19-year-old has taken a job maintaining the Endeavour Hills campus thanks to the building and construction course he took in year 12 which helped turn things around.
“[The course] helped me engage in school, and it was a tool that helped me finish,” he said of his experience with the VCE Vocational Major certificate.
“I was really struggling in my attendance, and it pulled me in, and helped me understand why I needed to go to school and finish my program.”
Back on the school grounds five days a week, the former student credited a great building and construction teacher with paving the way for him to succeed in the course and gain an understanding of the industry.
Heta’s story is part of a broader pattern of strong vocational performance at Gleneagles, propelling the school into the VET winner’s spot in The Age’s 2026 Schools that Excel.
The annual series celebrates schools that have achieved outstanding advancement in their VCE results over the past decade.
Principal Jo Sayer said the school’s building course had become increasingly popular, and Heta’s pathway showed how it could be used to re-engage students in education.
“Having a hands-on course that will lead to a pathway that the traditional VCE wouldn’t give a student helps,” she said.
VET was more practical and hands-on for students than the academically focused VCE, and very helpful to kids who already had ideas for their future career, she said.
“Not all students like sitting in a classroom learning in the traditional way at schools,” Sayer said.
The principal pointed out that Heta may not have graduated from high school if not for the building course, and said that many students took a VET course to complement their traditional VCE subjects.
In each year since 2022, Gleneagles has improved its VET completion rates, recording 85 per cent completions in 2023 and 97 per cent in 2024. Last year, the school reached 100 per cent.
In 2022, 169 students Gleneagles students enrolled in a VET certificate and 69 per cent of VET units were completed.
Last year, all of its 212 VET students completed their units, as the school hit an all-time high for VET enrolments.
“Our school has 100 per cent completion rate in VCE, and we’re pretty proud of that,” Sayer said.
“It is amazing, and that’s partly because a lot of our students do VET, and that adds to their engagement,” she said.
Among those set to graduate this year is school captain Maddie Harrington, who is studying a course in community service that she hopes will help in her future employment.
“I’d like to do something in law and social work, like youth justice,” the 17-year-old said.
Harrington said the VET course aligned well with her subjects, which include legal studies, and gave her a greater understanding of communities and their needs.
Sanika Kulkarni, another school captain who is also studying the same course, said she wanted to go into social work.
“I wanted a subject that would lead to that, and it was the perfect one,” she said.
It meant she and other students worked with Friends of Ermera, a local aid agency operating in Timor-Leste.
Max Williams, 16, is studying the sports and recreation VET at Gleneagles and is eager to go into sport teaching when he finishes high school.
“I thought it would really help my leadership and coaching skills,” he said.
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Caroline Schelle is an education reporter, and joined The Age in 2022. She previously covered courts at AAP.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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