Outdoor education students at Lake Ginninderra College have had life-changing experiences.
The course takes them scuba diving, skiing, caving and canoeing and teaches them valuable skills such as first aid, survival, navigation and leadership skills.
Roberta Vagnerelli went on an excursion to Lady Musgrave Island in the Great Barrier Reef in May where the students disconnected for nine days and went scuba diving and snorkelling twice a day.
"That gave us a really different perspective on our lives and our how lucky we are to be in the situation we're in. And it's taught us a lot about the environment," she said.
"During big trips like that and small trips and just in the classroom we learned so much about the world we're in."
However they could be one of the last cohorts to be able to take this course. A Board of Senior Secondary Studies committee review of C and E courses recommended C courses be redeveloped.
C Courses are a type of vocational course offered in years 11 and 12 in the ACT where students work towards a nationally-recognised certificate II. The courses are competency-based, so students get a pass grade after completing theory work and demonstrating skill to industry standards, rather than an A to E grade.
There are eight C courses currently offered, including construction pathways, live production services, music industry, musical and stage performance, furniture construction, horticulture, hospitality industry and outdoor recreation.
Students taking these courses are worried younger students won't have the same opportunities they had. Miss Vagnarelli attended a student forum to give feedback during the review process.
"The teachers were really looking just for support because the C courses are really important at our school and they didn't want them to go, and they knew we didn't want them to go," she said.
"They talked a lot about making it a lot more to do with literacy and numeracy and developing personal social skills and making [the C courses] more academic, but ... the whole point of them is that they're practical classes."
Many students who take these courses use the qualifications to get a job or continue training for a certificate III or higher when they finish school.
A spokesperson for the ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies said the review process was ongoing and no final recommendations had been made.
A final report is expected to be handed to the BSSS in November.
