Although UniSA-PAL was intended as a preparation for and pathway into higher education level study for those who would not otherwise have this opportunity, the schools have expressed a strong interest in this SACE accreditation for the PAL course. From the PAL students’ point of view, this would recognise their achievements and give them evidence of completion of their secondary education, a matter of significance for them quite apart from and in addition to its value as an entry pathway to university.
I also think that these students are doing a course which is well and truly the equivalent of adult SACE…Adult SACE is kind of a minimum requirement for people to be able to say “I finished my high school education”, for potential employers, for all sorts of people. Here are a group of people who have achieved something and are able to move on to university but can’t actually show the kind of accreditation that every other 15, 16 or 17 year old may have.
They are certainly working at that level by doing full time studies for 12 months in this kind of course.
I really think that kind of accreditation would just add another bit of value to the course.
In response to a request from the University that it consider this question, the relevant assessment and certification authority, SSABSA, in February 2004 determined that UniSA-PAL is deemed comparable to the certificate of completion of the requirements of secondary education in South Australia (the SACE), noting that “against the fundamental building blocks of the SACE – breadth, depth, standards, literacy and numeracy, and active participation in Australian society – the UniSA-PAL program shares similar structural features and is deemed comparable.”175 It was also decided that SSABSA would issue a formal Certificate of Comparability to students who successfully complete the UniSA-PAL course who request this, which would attests that the student “has completed a program that would be comparable to having successfully completed secondary education in South Australia.”