Mark Van Den Oever

VCE VET Certificates I and III in Engineering, 2004-05
National Highest Achieving Manufacturing Student prize, 2006
Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Vocational Education, 2006
Student, Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering/Business, 2007

"I've always been interested in design and how things work, so I thought a Vocational Education Training (VET) course in Engineering at VU would be a good way of exploring that further.

My sister did a VET course and she said it was a good introduction to uni life and a good way of getting into the workforce.

The Victoria University experience was great - I'd go off to TAFE every Wednesday, which broke up the school week. You got to choose the field you were interested in and the subjects that we had to do were incorporated into the VET program.

In the second year of my VET course, our teacher told us about the wide range of engineering opportunities and how there was a big demand for engineers. He introduced us to Re-engineering Australia's (REA) F1 car designing program and I knew for sure that's what I wanted to be doing.

Now I'm enrolled in a double degree in mechanical engineering and business at Victoria University where I've received a full scholarship. I hope to become a head engineer for a car manufacturer such as Ford or Ferrari."