VCE OES Outdoor Experience Hours: What the 25–50 Hour Requirement Means for Schools

The revised VCE Outdoor and Environmental Studies Study Design (2024–2028) has formalised expectations around outdoor experience hours, recommending that students complete between 25 and 50 hours of practical outdoor experiences per unit.

For most schools delivering a well-structured VCE OES program, the required hours should already be embedded within existing camps, local fieldwork and other outdoor experiences. The updated documentation from the VCAA helps provides clarity rather than increasing expectations.

The requirement excludes travel and sleeping time and focuses specifically on active participation in outdoor experiences. Importantly, schools can operate anywhere within the 25–50 hour range, allowing flexibility based on location, and program resourcing (e.g., time, costs, etc.).

At its core, this guidance reinforces a central aspect to VCE Outdoor and Environmental Studies which is, experiential education is not an optional extra for this subject. Students are expected to learn key knowledge and skills through and in outdoor environments.

One of the most practical takeaways from this guidance is the emphasis on a ‘local first’ approach. While multi-day journeys and camps remain valuable features of many VCE OES programs, they should not be the only opportunities for outdoor learning. Local environments (e.g., urban parklands, waterways, coastal strips or even school grounds) provide accessible, low cost and curriculum applicable contexts for delivering the course.

These local environments allow teachers the scope to embed outdoor learning within timetabled class time, strengthening the connection between theory and practice.

This is where your planning becomes essential. Rather than viewing the 25–50 hour recommendation as an additional compliance task, you as the course designer can map existing experiences against each unit and identify where other outdoor experiences could occur. In many cases, the combination of required practical experiences for assessment tasks, local fieldwork, and class-based applied activities will meet the course requirements.

In practical terms, strong VCE OES programs will:

•        Integrate local outdoor environments

•        Balance in class, half/whole-day and multi-day experiences

•        Explicitly connect outdoor experiences to Study Design key knowledge and key skills

•        Use logbooks while on outdoor experiences to add depth to learning and exam-ready examples

The clarity provided in the 2024–2028 Study Design also supports teachers in program justification conversations with school leadership. It reinforces that outdoor time is not enrichment, it is a critical aspect to effective curriculum delivery.

For more information, the official VCAA guidance on outdoor experience hours can be accessed here.

The key message is reassuring. The 25–50 hour recommendation does not represent an increase in expectations. It formalises what quality VCE OES programs have always done. That is, teach the Study Design through meaningful outdoor experiences linking theory to real world examples.