This project will examine and further explore qualitative responses collected in the 2005 Survey of Employer Use and Views of the VET System, related to employers' views on the training within the VET system and possible improvements that could be made to the VET system to better meet employer's needs. It will also compare findings from the NCVER survey with other recent employer surveys to compare and contrast findings about issues employers have with VET training.
The following questions will be used to determine the content of the report:
1. What are the main reasons for employer's dissatisfaction with the VET system?
2. Are similar reasons given regardless of the size or industry of the employer, or are there specific issues for particular "types" of employers?
3. What are the key areas of the VET system where employers feel improvements can be made? Are the employers making suggestions for improvements also the employers who are dissatisfied with the VET system?
4. Are the key areas for improvements standard across the various VET streams or are they specific (i.e. how do the reasons differ between vocational qualifications (as a job requirement), apprenticeships/traineeships and nationally recognised training)
5. Is unaccredited training becoming the preferred choice of meeting skill needs for employers? Why?
6. Does VET play a role in helping employers with recruitment and training difficulties?
7. Why are employers not using the VET system to meet their skill needs? For those employers not using an aspect of the VET system, what improvement would they need to see to consider it as a way of meeting skill needs?
Stage 1 - Analysis of data sources and brief literature review
To gain an idea of the type of information that exists about employer's views on the VET system and their feedback on how the system could serve them better.
Data sources other than the SEUV will be used to provide contextual information around the findings from the survey. The proposed sources include:
* Australian Industry Group report "World Class Skills for World Class Industries - Employers' Perspectives on Skilling in Australia" (May 2006),
* Business Council of Australia report "The Vocational Education and Training System: Key Issues for Large Enterprises" (March 2004)
* VECCI "Employer Spending on Education and Training 2003" (May 2004)
* Australian Bureau of Statistics "Training Expenditure and Practices Survey" (2001-02).
Stage 2 - Data analysis of SEUV and other sources
This stage will involve predominately qualitative analysis with basic quantitative analysis to show the extent of comments made and to put the findings in context.
Surveys to be looked at for providing context and noting the extent of comments made include the SEUV and the data sources noted in Stage 1.
Qualitative analysis of comments will involve investigating the open-ended responses to the SEUV about employers' views on training and looking at ways to summarise this information. Some of the questions to the survey have been converted into code frames and these as well as the verbatim comments will be reviewed and categorised into themes based on findings of the literature review.
The following data elements will be used:
* How the organisation currently determine training needs
* How the organisation addresses difficulties recruiting staff - do they use training?
* Suggestions for improvements with the various aspects of the VET system explored in the survey
* Reasons for dissatisfaction with the various aspects of the VET system explored in the survey
* Why don't use the various aspects of the VET system explored in the survey?
The suggested improvements will be looked at for each of the various aspects (i.e. vocational qualifications, apprenticeships/traineeships, nationally recognised training) as well on an employer basis (i.e. for that employer, looking at what comments were given). (Looking at comments on an employer basis will eliminate potential double counting of some suggestions as an employer may have given the same comment across each aspect of the VET system). Analysis of the comments will focus on the industry of the employer and the size of the employer to determine if there are any trends across these groups.
Stage 3 - Further qualitative work
As part of the development of the 2007 SEUV, developmental work will take place to test existing concepts. In addition to this work, further exploration of employer's suggestions for improvements and issues with the VET system will be explored, specifically for this project. These will most likely be in the form of a small number of focus groups. Employers will be asked to expand on improvements they would like to see made to the VET system and to detail how and why these improvements would enable them to better meet their training needs. These findings will be incorporated into the final report for this project, and if relevant into the 2007 SEUV questionnaire.
Stage 4 - Report writing
This stage will involve the writing of the report (1:3:25 format), which will take the format of a statistical publication.
Stage 5 - Publication and dissemination
It is suggested that the final publication is a web-only release.
