Before we start discussing our topic, it is very essential for us to know what precisely is AVCE. Essentially, AVCE stands for the Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education. Thus, it has to be understood that the AVCE is related to education and it is not any business unit, industry etc because the name gives an impression like that only. It was in September 2000, when the AVCE

was launched. It was for the first time when any such educational program was started that required the various participating candidates to write the exams in which the question papers were set by the external agencies.

This was done so as to provide the candidate the appropriate knowledge about the various aspects. Also, as AVCE is basically a vocational certificate program, it aims at providing professional skills to the candidates so that they can easily fetch a good job etc when the pass out. The first examination was held by the AVCE in January 2001 when approximately 40000 students wrote the examination. Let us discuss the qualification as the unit structure of AVCE in the next part of our discussion.

Qualification and Structure

As far as the qualifications are concerned, the advanced vocational certificate of education basically comprises six compulsory units and six optional units. The six compulsory units also includes the business finance, as it is of course a burning topic in the present time and is applicable everywhere, whether it is a job or a own business enterprise. The compulsory unit of the AVCE provides the students that opt for this course all the general coverage of the different areas

of curriculum. So, these can be understood as the basics. As far as the optional subjects are concerned, these are aimed at providing the students the broader knowledge base and more specialized curriculum.

The unit structure of the AVCE basically comprises of many aspects that aimed at the overall development of the student. These AVCE units comprises:

1) Outline of the different contents and the connections to the various other units of AVCE: It also includes the progression as well as the different methods of assessments.

2) The program of study: It is made of the different aspects related to the various fields that the students ought to know for understanding the topic better.

3) Assessment Advice: This is aimed at providing the students the information about the performance i.e. what are the various objectives and various levels that a student should achieve in order to achieve the unit. There are also different criteria under which the students are given the different grades, i.e. A, C and E.

4) Guidance for the teacher: It is aimed at providing the necessary guidelines to the various teachers at AVCE so that the students can easily achieve for what they have enrolled themselves. There are clear instructions that are provided to the teachers about the instruction methods etc.

Given above are the various units of which the AVCE comprises. As far as the knowledge that is imparted to the candidates, it can be easily said that there is immense knowledge that is imparted at AVCE. Let us discuss it in our next part of discussion.

Knowledge that is Imparted to the Students

As said above also, there is a lot of knowledge that is imparted to the students at AVCE. The knowledge is basically imparted by means of different units of the AVCE.

The various fields in which the knowledge is imparted are:

Assessment: The assessment is basically focused on one unit only. So, for each unit of AVCE, there is only one method of assessment. The assessment can comprise of either a portfolio of evidence, which is essentially the coursework or the external assessment. Apart from this, there are also grading system at AVCE. The grading enables a students achievement to be differentiated. As far as the grades are concerned, there are five types of grades at AVCE for both the types of assessment. The grades A, C and E are awarded for the explicit focused criteria whereas the grades B and D are basically awarded at AVCE to recognize the performance that is not covered under the A, C and E.

As far as the business finance program is concerned, the units at the AVCE of course gives the opportunity to the students the different types of decisions can be taken by means of the interpretation of the business records and the financial information that is provided to the management. This is done so that the students become well aware of the various aspects of business and take proper and timely decisions in future. Thus, it improves the business effectiveness of the student. Also, the business study program enables a student to understand how the information provided can be easily used for the planning and the evaluation.

The business program of the unit of AVCE is studied under the various related aspects. These aspects are the recording the financial information, construction of accounts etc. In the recording of the financial information, the students are told about the importance of the keeping the accurate business records. They are also told about the internal as well as the external users of the financial information, the exact range of the business documents, how the each document can be used to interpret various information, and how the information that has been squeezed can be used to form the accounts. Thus, the students are told about each and every aspect of the business records. As far as the construction of the accounts is considered, the students are told how the accounting information is used to form the final accounts after the original entry has been made.

Since the aim of the AVCE is to provide vocational education to a person, it also helps a student to get a good job or to start his own business venture. There is also a business management unit at AVCE, which helps a student to know about all the important aspects of the business management.