The major function of VCA Art is to prepare students for careers as art practitioners.

As visual artists usually work independently as self-employed individuals, their achievement is normally measured by the quality of their artistic output, critical reaction to their public exhibitions and their contribution to cultural life. Consequently students are advised not to embark on our courses with a pre-conception that appropriate job vacancies await at the culmination of their studies: advertised positions specifically designed for artists are extremely rare.

Many graduates support their studio activity through part-time employment while others obtain full-time art-related employment. Art education has been a major employer - in universities through to specialist secondary art teaching. Usually this option requires graduates to undertake post degree studies in education. Postgraduate qualifications in the visual arts are increasingly demanded by the higher education sector.

An education in the visual arts usually produces people who are creative and flexible and able to adapt specific skills to occupations with a visual or aesthetic component. Past graduates have established satisfying careers in areas which range across the culture industry, in museums, galleries and community arts centres, in occupational therapy, in ceramics or photography studios, art packaging and transportation, as art advisers to corporate and government bodies, in film, television and theatre, in art materials supplies and as managers or coordinators of art or cultural events. However, as the discipline is charged with a responsibility for the education of professional visual artists, it is ultimately judged by the quality and proportion of its graduates who regularly and successfully exhibit in public and commercial galleries in Australia and throughout the world.