VET kickstarts careers: 2007 results in

A profile of three of the thousands of publicly funded VET students who participated in NCVER’s 2007 Student Outcomes Survey reveals some of the job-related and personal outcomes students gain as a result of their studies.

For 17-year-olds Amy and Kurtis, VET provided that all-important kickstart into the workforce and on to careers of choice.

After completing a Certificate IV in Community Services at Great Southern TAFE, Amy is now studying for a Diploma in Community Welfare and working with students at a local secondary school. Her goal is to “become a youth worker and support young people through the difficult stages in their lives”.

“I’d like to learn more about outreach work with youth and the homeless, and the suicide prevention aspects of the work,” she says.

Kurtis completed a component of his school studies at a VET provider—a Certificate II in General Education for Adults at Wodonga TAFE.

“I didn’t like school so I decided to do my Year 10 at TAFE. It was good because I was only there three days a week and the other days I was working.”

Kurtis is now undertaking his apprenticeship in Fabrication and Boiler Making and credits his combined education and welding training in Year 10 as giving him the skills and requirements to pursue the career he wants.

“It (the training) was really important because you need Year 10 to do an apprenticeship and I learnt about welding as well, so that helped me,” he says.

Survey results show that, like Amy and Kurtis, the majority of students who completed their training are employed or go on to further study. And, just as important, they are satisfied with the quality of their training.

The results also reveal that a number of students undertake training for personal development reasons.

This was the case for 69-year-old retiree and grandmother Helen, who completed an introductory computer course at Canberra Institute of Technology.

“I was able to come home and do things on the computer and I found that so rewarding. I feel so much more confident now, and I have the ability to relate to my grandchildren on a whole new level,” she says.

Student Outcomes Survey 2007: Key findings

	Graduates %
Employment and further study outcomes After training (as at 25 May 2007):
Employed	81.1
Not employed before commencing the training and employed after	12.8
Employed in first full-time job after training	17.8
Employed or in further study after training	89.2
Training
Reasons for undertaking the training:
Employment-related outcome	77.7
Further study outcome	4.7
Personal development outcome	17.7
Satisfaction outcomes
Satisfied with the overall quality of training	88.8
Fully or partly achieved their main reason for doing the training	86.7

Australian vocational education and training statistics: Student outcomes 2007 is available at
www.ncver.edu.au/publications/1937.html