VCE Accounting explores the financial recording, reporting and analysis and decision making processes of a sole proprietor small business. Accounting plays an integral role in the successful operation and management of every organisation, from a small business to a global corporation. VCE Accounting prepares students for a university or vocational pathway in commerce, business management and accounting, forensic accounting, business management and financial planning. In VCE Accounting students apply critical thinking skills to a range of business situations, using both manual bookkeeping and information and communications technology (ICT) to provide accounting advice to business owners. Ethical considerations are taken into account throughout Units 1- 4.

Unit 1.  The role of accounting in business
This unit explores the establishment of a business and the role of accounting in the determination of business success or failure. Students analyse, interpret and evaluate the performance of the business using financial and non financial information, then use these evaluations to make recommendations. Students record financial data and prepare reports for service businesses owned by sole proprietors.

Unit 2.  Accounting and decision making for a trading business
In this unit, students develop their knowledge of the accounting process for sole proprietors operating a trading business. Students us manual processes and ICT to prepare historical and budgeted accounting reports. Students analyse and evaluate the performance of the business and use relevant financial and other information to predict, budget and compare the potential effects of alternative strategies. They also suggest strategies to improve business performance.

Unit 3.   Financial accounting for a trading business
This unit focuses on financial accounting for a trading business owned by a sole proprietor and highlights the role of accounting as an information system. Students use the double entry system of recording financial data and  prepare reports using the accrual basis of accounting and perpetual method of inventory recording. They interpret reports and information presented in a variety of formats and suggest strategies to the owner to improve the performance of the business.

Unit 4.  Recording, reporting, budgeting and decision making
In this unit students further develop their understanding of accounting for a small sole proprietor trading business. Students extend their understanding of manual and ICT methods used in the recording and reporting process, including balance day adjustments and alternative depreciation methods. Students investigate both the role and importance of budgeting in decision making for a business. They analyse and interpret accounting reports and graphical representations to evaluate the performance of a business and suggest strategies to business owners to improve business performance.

Career options: Accountant, Auditor, Bank Officer, Company Secretary, Corporate Treasurer, Diplomat, Economics, Financial Advisor, Financial Journalist, Statistician, Stockbroker, Tax Agent, Trade Analyst, University Lecturer

Unit 1 and 2 Business Management

Unit 1
Students explore the required skills to effectively plan a successful business. Students understand how to establish a business idea or concept in order to develop a marketable good or service. In Area of Study 1, students understand the key skills of an entrepreneur. In Area of Study 2, students understand pressures and influences of the external environment on a business including key stakeholders, economic condition and global issues.

In Area of Study 3, students explore the internal environment and the key structural components a business needs to succeed and plan to achieve profit and reach business objectives.

Unit 2
Students explore how to establish a business legally and structurally. In Area of Study 2, students explore the key skills to help advertise and market a business to expand market share and remain profitable. In Area of Study 2, students explore the key skills to help advertise and market a business to expand market share and customer sales.

In Area of Study 3 students explore how to manage staff in a business to promote productivity and effective outcomes. In both Unit 1 and 2, students consider a range of case studies to apply their key skills in context for understanding.

Unit 3 and 4 Business Management

Unit 3
Students explore how to effectively manage a business through its structural design, staffing and operations management.

Area of Study 1
Students explore the key components to establishing a business legally and structurally including learning key skills such as management styles, skills and approaches to build corporate culture.

Area of Study 2
Students explore how to manage staff to improve productivity and performance using a range of strategies such a motivation theories, strategies and training options. Students also explore the area of workplace relations to understand how remuneration working condition and entitlements are negotiated and set in a business.

Area of study 3
Students explore the key components of operations management where they understand the required processes to create a good or service as a product to be sold to customers. Through this area students understand ways to reduce waste and decrease environmental negative impacts on the economy.

Unit 4
Students explore the processes of transforming a business to change in order to remain a successful organisation.

Area of study 1
Students explore reviewing the performance of a business through the use of data to identify areas needed for change or improvement.
Students understand how to implement a change model and identify key restraining and driving forces for sustainable and successful change.

Area of study 2
Students then explore how a business can successfully implement change within it’s organisation. Students explore how business needs to structurally approach change and ensure that staff are participating and onboard with this decision. Students across both units use case studies to contextualise and provide real world examples and applications of the content studied.

In Area of Study 1
Students explore reviewing the performance of a business through the use of data to identify areas needed for change or improvement. Students understand how to implement a change model and identify key restraining and driving forces for sustainable and successful change.

In Area of Study 2
Students then explore how a business can successfully implement change within its organisation. Students explore how a business needs to structurally approach change and ensure that staff are participating and onboard with this decision. Students across both units use case studies to contextualise and provide real world examples and applications of the content studied.

The VCE Extended Investigation enables students to develop, refine and extend knowledge and skills in independent research and carry out an investigation that focuses on a rigorous research question.

The investigation may be an extension of an area of curriculum already undertaken by the student or it may be completely independent of any other study in the student’s VCE program.

Through this study, students develop their capacity to explore, justify and defend their research findings in both oral and written forms to an education non specialist audience.

Geography is the study of the human and natural worlds, and the influence that these have on one another.

Students learn about the most recent world issues, from climate change to the impacts of current wars.
Geography is a positive, forward looking subject that offers students a chance to apply cutting-edge technologies and study the latest approaches to social and environmental issues, thus preparing students to make positive change from a local to an international scale.

Students undertake fieldwork in each unit to investigate the concepts learnt in the classroom.

Geography graduates are some of the most sought after employees in the modern workforce and have a vast array of career paths available to them, including: International Aid work
Disaster Management
Tourism
Town and Social Planning
Wildlife Management
Oceanography
Climatography and plenty more.

Unit 1:
Hazards and disasters
In this unit students undertake an overview of hazards and disasters before investigating two contrasting types of hazards and disasters in detail. Some examples that may be studied include bushfires, floods, infectious diseases, and epidemics.
Students then proceed to explore the ways in which humans have responded to selected hazards, including through specific measures such as prediction and warning programs and community preparedness.
As part of their studies students undertake fieldwork to investigate the impacts of a hazard and present this in the form of a report by collecting and processing primary and secondary data using appropriate methods from fieldwork, including the use of spatial technologies.

Unit 2:
Tourism – Issues and Challenges
As the travel and tourism industry is directly responsible for one in every twelve jobs globally, the growth of tourism at all scales requires careful management to ensure environmentally sustainable and economically viable tourism.
In this unit students investigate the characteristics of tourism: where it has developed, its various forms, how it has changed and continues to change and its impact on people, places and environments, issues and challenges of ethical tourism. Students select contrasting examples of tourism from within Australia and elsewhere in the world to support their investigations.

Students undertake fieldwork in this unit to evaluate the measures taken to enhance the positive impacts and minimise the negative impacts of tourism at our selected location.

NOTE: VCE Geography Unit 1 /2 can be undertaken in either the Wednesday block OR the normal blocks.

Unit 3:
Changing the Land
In this unit students will investigate two aspects of geographical change- land cover change and land use change.
Students investigate two major processes that are changing land cover in many regions of the world: melting glaciers and ice sheets, and deforestation.
They investigate the distribution and causes of the two processes. One case study location will be investigated for each of the processes to develop a greater understanding of the changes to land cover, the impacts of these changes and responses to these changes at different scales.

At a local scale students investigate land use change using appropriate fieldwork techniques and secondary sources. They investigate the processes of change, the reasons for change and the impacts of change.

Unit 4:
Human Population – Trends and Issues
In this unit students will investigate the geography of human populations. Through the study of population dynamics, students investigate growth and decline in fertility and mortality, together with population movements. To illustrate the dynamics of population, students examine examples from within and between countries with different economic and political conditions and social structures.

Students undertake investigations into two countries with significant population trends in different parts of the world: a growing population of one country and an ageing population of another country. For these two case studies, students investigate issues arising from each population trend and the challenges that arise in coping with the issues.
They also evaluate the effectiveness of strategies in response to these issues and challenges.

 

Global Politics is the study of the political, social, cultural and economic forces that shape interactions between states and other global actors in the contemporary world.

It examines the interconnectedness of the contemporary global political arena and the impact of globalisation on culture, sovereignty, human rights and the environment.
It examines the nature and power of key global actors and the types of power used by an Asia-Pacific state to achieve its national interests.
It considers global ethical issues including human rights, people movement, development and arms control and explores the nature and effectiveness of global responses to crises such as climate change, armed conflict, terrorism and economic instability.

Unit 3: Global actors

In this unit students investigate the key global actors of contemporary global politics. This includes states, non-governmental organisations (such as Greenpeace, terrorist organisation and religions), intergovermental organisations (such as the UN and the International Crimial Court) and trans-national corporations (such as Shell and Apple).

They use evidence to analyse the key global actors and their aims, roles and power.
They develop an understanding of the key actors through an in-depth examination of the concepts of national interests and power as they relate to the state, and the way in which one Asia-Pacific state Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, United States of America) uses power to achieve its objectives.

Unit 4: Global Challenges

In this unit students investigate key global challenges facing the international community in the 21st century.
They examine and analyse the debates surrounding two ethical issues that are underpinned by international law (such as human rights, people movement, development, arms control). They then evaluate the effectiveness of responses to these issues.

Students also explore the context and causes of global crises and consider the varying effectiveness of responses and challenges to resolving them (climate change, armed conflict, terrorism and economic instability). VCE Global Politics is a contemporary study and focus must be on examples and case studies from within the last 10 years.

In VCE Revolutions students explore different revolutionary periods across history, with an in-depth study of the American and Russian revolution.

History is a dynamic discipline that involves an inquiry into the social, political, economic, cultural, environmental and technological that have shaped the past and present. To make meaning of the past, students use historical sources, which include primary sources and historical interpretations. Students analyse and evaluate evidence and use this when constructing historical arguments.

As aspiring historians students ask new questions, revise interpretations, or discover new sources, fresh understandings about the past come to light.

The study of VCE History fosters the ability to ask searching questions, to engage in independent research and to construct arguments about the past based on evidence from historical sources.

This study enables students to:

• Ask and use questions about the past, evaluate historical sources and construct historical arguments based on their use of sources as historical evidence.
• Develop an understanding of cause and consequence, continuity and change and significance
• Explore a range of eras and periods, events, people, places, ideas and historical perspectives to develop a broad understanding of the past
• Engage with historical interpretations and the contested debates between historians
• Recognise how our understanding of the past informs decision making in the present
• Appreciate that the world in which we live has not always been as it is now, and that it will continue to change in the future

MODERN HISTORY
History is the practice of understanding and making meaning of the past. Students learn about their historical past, their shared history and the people, ideas and evetns that have created present societies and cultures.

VCE History is relevant to students with a wide range of expectations, including those who wish to pursue formal study at Tertiary level, as well as provided valuable knowledge and skills for an understanding of the underpinnings of contemporary society.

Unit 1: Change and Conflict
In this unit students investigate the nature of social, political, economical and cultural change in the later part of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
Modern History provides students with an opportunity to explore the significant events, idea individuals and movements that shaped the social political, economic and technological conditions and developments that have defined the modern world.

Unit 2: The changing world order
In this unit students investigate the nature and impact of the Cold War and challenges and changes to social, political and economic structures and systems of popwer in the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty first century.

Unit 3 and 4: Revolutions
Students investigate the significant historical causes and consequences of political revolution. Revolutions represent great ruptures in time and are a major turning point in the collapse and destruction of an existing political order which results in extensive change to society.
Revolutions are caused by the interplay of events, ideas, individuals and popular movements, and the interplay between the political, social, cultural, economic and environmental conditions. Their consequences have a profound effect on the political and social structures of the post revolutionary society.

Revolution is a dramatically accelerated process whereby the new regime attempts to create political, social, cultural and economic change and transformation based on the regime’s ideology. Change in post revolutionary society is not guaranteed or inevitable and continuities can remain from the pre-revolutionary society. The implementation of revolutionary ideology was often challenged internally by civil war and externally by foreign threats.

These challenges can result in a compromise of revolutionary ideals and extreme measure of violence, oppression and terror.

Causes of revolution.
What were the significant causes of revolution?
How did the actions of popular movements and particular individuals contribute to triggering a revolution?
To what extent did social tensions and ideological conflicts contribute to the outbreak of revolution?
Consequences of revolution

Across Units 1 to 4 in VCE Legal Studies students develop skills in defining and appropriately using legal terminology, discuss, interpret and analyse legal principles and information, and apply their legal reasoning and understanding to actual and/or hypothetical scenarios. The key knowledge areas covered in each unit are outlined as below.

Unit 1 Guilt and Liability

In this introductory unit students develop an understanding of legal foundations, such as the different types and sources of law and the existence of a court hierarchy in Victoria. Students investigate key concepts of criminal law and civil law and apply these to actual and/or hypothetical scenarios to determine whether an accused may be found guilty of a crime, or liable in a civil dispute. In doing so, students develop an appreciation of the way in which legal principles and information are used in making reasoned judgments and conclusions about the culpability of an accused, and the liability of a party in a civil dispute.

Unit 2 Sanctions, Remedies and Rights

Criminal law and civil law aim to protect the rights of individuals. When rights are infringed, a case or dispute may arise which needs to be determined or resolved, and sanctions or remedies may be imposed. This unit focuses on the enforcement of criminal law and civil law, the methods and institutions that may be used to determine a criminal case or resolve a civil dispute, and the purposes and types of sanctions and remedies and their effectiveness. Students undertake a detailed investigation of two criminal cases and two civil cases from the past four years to form a judgment about the ability of sanctions and remedies to achieve the principles of justice.

Unit 3 Rights and Justice

The Victorian justice system, which includes the criminal and civil justice systems, aims to protect the rights of individuals and uphold the principles of justice: fairness, equality and access. In this unit students examine the methods and institutions in the justice system and consider their appropriateness in determining criminal cases and resolving civil disputes. Students consider the Victorian court hierarchy, the different roles within the criminal justice system, and the ability of sanctions and remedies to achieve their purposes.

Unit 4 The People and the Law

This unit involves the study of Australia’s laws and legal system and the institutions that make and reform our laws. In this unit students explore how the Australian Constitution establishes the law making powers of the Commonwealth and state parliaments, and protects the Australian people. Students develop an understanding of the significance of the High Court in protecting and interpreting the Australian Constitution. They investigate parliament and the courts, and the relationship between the two in law making.

Career Options

Administrative Assistant, Politician, Barrister, Senior Manager, Police Officer, Magistrate, Clerical Officer, Solicitor, Journalist, Clerk of Courts, University Lecturer, Diplomat, Youth Worker, Legal Clerk, Legal Secretary