The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) is a two-year senior school certificate available to secondary students in Victoria, Australia, and has been operational for almost a decade. It is delivered by secondary schools and further education providers. In 2010, two programmes from each of these providers were reviewed and considered in the context of current government public education policy. This paper provides some context for the current policy environment, whilst considering the two programmes from the perspective of students. The result, it is suggested, is akin to a "student sieve," which is a part of the current policy landscape of the public education system whereby one group of students are even further disadvantaged as education providers try and induce the more capable students to stay at their school, whilst assisting those less capable to find alternative pathways. The alternative to mainstream education has increasingly become a setting that is not appropriately funded or equipped to manage students who drag their "Pandora's box" of issues behind them into every classroom.