Completing a VET course has the potential to change lives: 2023 report findings

Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) system is contributing to the economic, employment and social outcomes in Australia, a new report has found, tracking the outcomes of students from the top 100 courses completed in the 2018-19 academic year. 

 

“VET Student Outcomes 2018-19 – Top 100 Courses” was released on 16 November 2023, and tracks VET student outcomes for the top 100 courses (by completion). This innovative approach to uncovering this data is the result of a collaborative project between Jobs and Skills Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).

 

This new data set (known as the VET National Data Asset or VNDA) will assist Jobs and Skills Australia to provide advice on the adequacy of the Australian VET system, unlocking new insights and analysis possibilities.

 

Excitingly, VNDA will provide a consistent evidence base to measure sector outcomes, now and into the future. It draws from a detailed analysis of the employment, economic, social, and further study outcomes for VET students’ who completed a qualification in the 2018-19 financial year.

 

Key findings

 

The report demonstrates that completing a VET course has the potential to change lives for the better; increasing employment opportunities, preparing students for the workforce of the future, and paving the way for ongoing learning.

 

Particularly, for those who have previously faced barriers to entering the workforce, such as women, First Nations People and those with a disability, this report shows that a VET qualification can make a significant difference to key measures such as employment, income, and future learning.

 

At the national level 82 per cent of students were employed after VET training in the 2018-19 financial year. For the women included in the study, there was a significant change in employment rate of 15.2 percentage points, which was higher than the national average of 12.4 percentage points.

 

For many students, the completion of a VET qualification has the transformative financial impact, with a median employee income uplift of more than $10,000 for graduates (with an even larger uplift for the First Nations cohort), representing a step towards financial security.

 

61 per cent of students undertaking foundation skills, like Certificate I and II in Spoken and Written English, progress to further VET study, and many other students use the completion of one VET course as the springboard for another. 

 

The key findings, full report and associated data set can be found here. Image sourced from TAFE NSW.