VM Personal Development Skills (PDS)

VCE Vocational Major Personal Development Skills (PDS) takes an active approach to personal development, self-realisation and citizenship by exploring interrelationships between individuals and communities. PDS focuses on health, wellbeing, community engagement and social sciences, and provides a framework through which students seek to understand and optimise their potential as individuals and as members of their community.

This study provides opportunities for students to explore influences on identity, set and achieve personal goals, interact positively with diverse communities, and identify and respond to challenges. Students will develop skills in self-knowledge and care, accessing reliable information, teamwork, and identifying their goals and future pathways.

PDS explores concepts of effective leadership, self-management, project planning and teamwork to support students to engage in their work, community and personal environments.

Through self-reflection, independent research, critical and creative thinking and collaborative action, students will extend their capacity to understand and connect with the world they live in, and build their potential to be resilient, capable citizens.

This study enables students to:

• develop a sense of identity and self-worth
• understand and apply concepts that support individual health and wellbeing
• access, critique, synthesise and communicate reliable information
• explain the role of community and the importance of social connectedness
• practise the rights and responsibilities of belonging to a community
• recognise and describe the attributes of effective leaders and teams
• set and work towards the achievement of goals
• work independently and as part of a team to understand and respond to community need
• evaluate and respond to issues that have an impact on society
• develop capacities to participate in society as active, engaged and informed citizens.