Regardless of the job outcome, most training pays off

29 July 2008

Whether you get the job of your dreams or not, chances are your training was worthwhile, according to a new study by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research.

NCVER Managing Director Tom Karmel said his research, Is VET vocational?, set out to explore the relationship between vocational education and training (VET) courses studied and the jobs obtained.

"The question we asked was whether people who take job-specific courses in the VET system find the training to be relevant when they land a job unrelated to their training," Dr Karmel said.

"Putting it bluntly when an office trainee finds work as a waiter was the training worthwhile or was it wasted?"

Dr Karmel said the study showed a relatively high match between VET study and jobs obtained for the trades, but a low match elsewhere.

However, despite the low fit in non-trade areas, graduates mostly reported that their training was relevant to their job, despite not ending up in their 'matched' occupation.

But some graduates did find their training not relevant to the occupation in which they found themselves. The two course areas with the highest skills wastage were arts and media, sports, and personal services.

"The research has three implications," Dr Karmel said.

"Like much of the university sector, there is no neat match between courses and the occupations of graduates. In this sense, much of VET is generic in nature.

"To reduce wasted training, those developing courses need to be aware that many graduates will not work in their 'intended' occupation and therefore ensure that their courses have relevance to a wide range of contexts.

"Finally, potential students need to be realistic about the likely occupation that a particular course will lead to."

To download a copy of Is VET vocational? The relevance of training to the occupations of vocational education and training graduates please visit http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2013.html.

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