Question 1

What does Charge Academy cost per cohort?

Accepted Answer

One annual fee covers the kit, certified curriculum, two days of PD for your teachers and a slot in the national circuit — there are no per-student licence fees or surprise consumable charges. In eligible states the program counts toward VET-delivered funding, which means it sits in an existing budget line rather than an extracurricular slush fund. We share a per-state indicative figure for principals on request so you can take a clean number to your business manager.

Question 2

How much teacher time does the program actually take?

Accepted Answer

Two days of intensive PD up front, then roughly three to four hours a week across the term — delivered by the teachers on your staff who already run STEM or VET electives. Crucially, those contact hours count toward your faculty's VET-delivered quota because the program is structured around a registered AUR32721 unit, not bundled as an extracurricular add-on. Each assessment task the teacher signs off maps to a competency they would otherwise deliver in a stand-alone VETi subject.

Question 3

What about safety, insurance and risk assessment?

Accepted Answer

The drivetrain runs at 48V using LiFePO4 cell chemistry — well below the legal threshold at which a traction system is classed as high voltage for cars, so standard workshop and lab policy covers the program. The kit ships with arc-rated face shield, Class 0 HV-insulating gloves and lockout-tagout tags for every cohort member, and we provide a school-ready risk assessment template your HSEQ lead can review. No special rider on your public-liability policy is required for participating schools in any state we currently operate in.

Question 4

What does our facility need to provide?

Accepted Answer

A standard tech-studies room or workshop of about 40 square metres, 230V single-phase mains for overnight charging, and the metric hand tools you already own. There is no need for a dedicated trade-school bay, a high-voltage isolation room or a spray booth. Students carry out the on-site AUR32721 competency in the same workshop where they assemble, diagnose and prepare the car for race day.

Question 5

Do students actually earn a credential, or is this just enrichment?

Accepted Answer

Yes — every kit day accrues hours toward Certificate II or III in Automotive Electric Vehicle Technology (AUR32721), a nationally recognised qualification on the AUR Automotive Training Package. The race car build is the assessment task: the same evidence your teacher signs off is the same evidence an RTO partner would recognise, which is why the hours bank onto the student's transcript rather than vanishing at the end of the season.

Question 6

Does it count toward ATAR, QCE, HSC, WACE, TCE or SACE?

Accepted Answer

In every Australian state the VET credit hours from AUR32721 contribute to ATAR, QCE, HSC, WACE, TCE and SACE through the same VET-in-Schools pathway used by any other Certificate II or III program. Charge Academy supplies a per-state mapping table so your careers advisor can tell a Year 11 student exactly what their transcript will look like at graduation — Cert II contribution to ATAR, Cert III contribution to QCE points, and so on.

Question 7

What about kit delivery, storage and what arrives at the school?

Accepted Answer

Flat-pack numbered crates arrive approximately six weeks before your first kit day, with an inventory sheet you sign off against. The assembled car occupies about three square metres of secure workshop floor space on its chassis stand when not on track. Because the same kit is the assessment equipment used year after year, its storage life adds to your school's VET infrastructure — not a write-down at the end of the season.

Question 8

How do we assess and report on student progress?

Accepted Answer

The evidence portfolio for Charge Academy is the VET portfolio: build journal entries, race telemetry logs, live fault-diagnosis write-ups and the judge panel interview each map verbatim to AUR32721 unit competency rubrics. Your teacher signs off exactly the way they would for an RPL candidate, and the reporting you already do for VETi covers the program — no parallel mark book, no extra admin load on top of the existing VET reporting cycle.

Question 9

How is Charge Academy different from eV Challenge, STEM Racing or state-run programs?

Accepted Answer

Those programs are extracurricular clubs — students build and race, then leave with a memory and a club pin. Charge Academy runs the same physical activity but structures every kit task, every race-day diagnostic and every team presentation around an AUR32721 unit of competency, so graduates leave with a recognised VET hours contribution on their transcript, a national ranking and a portfolio they can hand to an employer or an RTO. The racing is the same; the credential is the difference.

Question 10

How does the competition circuit run, and what about travel?

Accepted Answer

State-tier rounds run across five state capitals between March and August — Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia — and the team at the top of the championship points table qualifies for the National Finals in September or October. The host circuit rotates annually across the same five states, and travel subsidies are available for finalist schools. Race days double as the practical observation for several Cert III units, so the trip reads as sporting travel on the surface and accredited assessment underneath.

Question 11

What happens to graduates after Year 12?

Accepted Answer

Their AUR32721 hours articulate directly into an automotive electrical apprenticeship pathway and bank toward related engineering diplomas, the same pathway an RTO-delivered student walks into. Graduates finish Year 12 with a trade qualification prior to enrolment, a defence portfolio in front of industry judges and a national ranking — the same head-start their RTO-delivered peers have, but earned through racing rather than a separate week of campus study.

Eleven questions principals ask before committing to a new EV program.

What schools ask before they commit

Talk to someone who runs a school program.