The estimated number of students participating in vocational education and training (VET) has remained steady at 4.2 million in 2017, according to new data released today by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).
The report Total VET students and courses 2017 provides an estimate of the nature and extent of VET as reported by 4193 Australian training providers in domestic and overseas locations.
The report shows that the estimated participation rate of VET students in Australia remained steady at 24.1% of those aged 15 to 64 years, with participation highest among those aged 15 to 19 years (46.1%).
In 2017, the total number of program enrolments declined by 7.6% to 3.4 million, with a 4.3% decline in national training package program enrolments to 2.5 million and an 11.5% decline in nationally recognised accredited course enrolments to 370 300.
Total program enrolments decreased across all Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) certificate levels, except certificate III (up 2.6% to 996 100). AQF enrolments represent 81.5% of all program enrolments in 2017 (78.9% in 2016).
Subject only enrolments (i.e. enrolments in a stand-alone unit of competency or module, not a full program) increased by 19.3% to 5.2 million, representing 17.8% of all subject enrolments (14.4% in 2016). Domestic fee-for-service subject only enrolments increased by 20.0% to 4.9 million.
In 2017, the estimated number of international students (studying both onshore and offshore) increased by 10.4% to 186 300. International fee-for-service subject enrolments increased by 14.8% to 2.2 million, with fee-for-service subject enrolments at private providers increasing by 25.0% to 1.5 million.
For further information on international VET students refer to NCVER’s newly released data visualisation tool located on the Portal https://www.ncver.edu.au/data/collection/students-and-courses-collection/total-vet-students-and-courses
The report Australian vocational education and training statistics: Total VET students and courses 2017 is now available for download from: www.ncver.edu.au/publications. For a visual representation of this data, an infographic is also available at: https://www.ncver.edu.au/infographics
Information on completion rates for both government-funded and total VET programs will be available in the publication VET program completion rates 2016, to be released mid-August 2018.
This work has been produced by NCVER on behalf of the Australian Government and state and territory governments, with funding provided through the Australian Government Department of Education and Training.
Media enquiries: Helen Wildash, PR and Social Media Officer
P: +61 8 8230 8418 M: 0448 043 148 E: communications@ncver.edu.au