Work in Progress
What it's worth: Establishing the value of vocational qualifications to employers
Summary
- Item:
- 10179
- Title:
- What it's worth: Establishing the value of vocational qualifications to employers
- Type:
- Managed research project
- Project no:
- NR1022
- Status:
- Finished
- Date commenced:
- 30 October 2001
- Contact:
- Mark Cully
- phone: +61 8 8230 8404
- email: Mark.Cully@ncver.edu.au
Purpose
This study will focus on the general question of the value of vocational qualifications to employers. It will use the AQF as an organising principle for establishing the relative value of different types of qualifications (i.e. Certificate 1 through to Advanced Diploma).
It will do this by quantifying the economic value of qualifications to employers, as measured by:
* the importance of qualifications in the recruitment process;
* the extent to which occupations are segmented into holders of qualifications and non-holders; and,
* the success of qualification holders relative to one another, and relative to those without qualifications, in obtaining employment and earning higher wages.
The findings will enable policy makers and administrators to have a solid understanding of the purpose and utility of vocational qualifications in the labour market. It will also provide the first empirical evidence available on the relative value, as seen by employers, of different AQF level qualifications.
Approach
Analysis of ABS data (Labour Force Survey of May 2001, SETE 2001)
Research questions
The key question that this study seeks to answer is:
What is the economic value of vocational qualifications to employers, and how does this value vary depending upon the level of the qualification (i.e. level, how and where attained) and the type of employer (i.e. industry, size, occupational mix, importance of firm-specific skills)?
Methodology
Stage 1
* literature review;
* analysis of job vacancies at a specific point
Stage 2
* analysis of May 2001 supplement to Labour Force Survey to identify:
- concentration of vocational qualifications in occupations;
- range of labour market outcomes.
Stage 3
* Analysis of most recent SETE data (2001 SETE, to be available by June 2002) to identify rate of return which accrues from vocational qualifications.
Stage 4
* Report preparation.
Organisations
The National Institute of Labour Studies is a multi-disciplinary research organisation based at Flinders University, Adelaide. It was founded in 1972 and formally incorporated in 1981. It is a self-funding, non-profit research institute that is widely recognised as one of Australia's leading independent labour market research organisations.
