Key messages

The socio-economic status of vocational education and training students in Australia

This report investigates the relationship between socio-economic status and participation and achievement in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. The research examines the extent to which training opportunities provided by the public VET system are taken up by people from different socio-economic backgrounds. The relationship between socio-economic status and VET participation and achievement is determined by applying aggregate area-based Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to the 2001 National VET Provider Collection maintained by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).

• There is an over-representation of students from low socio-economic areas in the Australian VET sector.
  
  
• This over-representation is partly driven by the relatively high participation by students in vocational education and training in regions outside the capital cities, which on average tend to be lower socio-economic areas.
  
  
• People from low socio-economic areas tend to undertake lower-level qualifications.
  
  
• VET students from lower socio-economic areas complete qualifications at a better-than-average rate.

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