Latest data
Australian youth choosing education and training
New figures show that for the 1.5 million young Australians aged 15 to 19, 83.4% were enrolled in education and training as at August 2015.
Across this age range, 56.8% were at school, 16.1% were enrolled in higher education, 4.5% were undertaking apprenticeships or traineeships (which were not part of a VET in Schools program), and 5.9% were enrolled in other vocational education and training (VET) programs.
By 19 years of age over half of school leavers transition to post-school education and training with 32.5% enrolled in higher education, 9.5% undertaking apprenticeships and traineeships, and 11.1% enrolled in other VET programs.
For more information, see Young people in education & training 2015.
New visual mapping tool
We've launched a new interactive tool designed for intermediate data users. The Atlas of total VET is a visual mapping tool which displays total VET activity by geographic region.
Atlas lets you customise and compare training profiles for different regions based on the area of student residence. It provides a range of statistical information such as students by age and gender; training package and program enrolments; and equity groups.
NCVER will be hosting a webinar demonstrating Atlas in early 2017. Watch this space.
What's new in research
Uptake and utility of VET qualifications
Are you interested in knowing how qualification enrolments are distributed across Australia’s training packages? Our latest report finds enrolments are heavily concentrated in relatively few qualifications. In 2015, 85% of enrolments were focused in 200 qualifications, with the rest distributed across 1 444 qualifications. Some 283 qualifications had no enrolments in either 2014 or 2015.
It also reveals the majority of enrolments (90%) were concentrated in 20 training packages in 2015, while 10% were spread across the remaining 57 training packages.
For more information, see Uptake and utility of VET qualifications or check out our infographic for a quick summary.
Interested in how our research program is progressing?
Our new Research prospectus: snapshot on progress provides a summary on how we are tracking against each of the four research priorities identified in Research prospectus 2015-16:
- Productivity
- Participation and outcomes
- Learning and teaching
- The place and role of VET.
Take a look for a quick overview on how many publications are complete; how many projects are in progress; and what's on the horizon. For example, did you know NCVER has released nine publications on productivity, and has a further nine in progress?
VOCEDplus: Digital skills
NCVER is currently working on a research project, Developing appropriate workforce skills for Australia's emerging digital economy, which investigates how to effectively equip the workforce with appropriate digital skills for enhanced workplace participation and sustainable economic productivity. Digital skills are gaining importance, not only in Australia, but the rest of the world. Our free research database, VOCEDplus, has captured a range of international research on this topic, including:
- Building skills for all: a review of Finland: policy insights on literacy, numeracy and digital skills from the Survey of Adult Skills
- Crunched by the numbers: the digital skills gap in the workforce [US]
- Defining essential digital skills in the Canadian workplace: final report
- Digital skills for the UK economy
- The impact of digital skills on educational outcomes: evidence from performance tests [Italy]
For more on this topic, see:
- VOCEDplus Pod Network - Technology
- Focus on… Digital disruption - jobs
- Focus on… Digital disruption - skills and training
Upcoming events
Webinar: An introduction to VOCSTATS
Thursday 1 December, 1:00pm - 2:00pm ACDT
Join us as we demonstrate VOCSTATS, a data tool that allows you to construct tables via an interactive web interface. VOCSTATS is designed for users who require highly tailored outputs and are willing to design and generate their statistical outputs directly.
For more information and to register
Present at the 26th National VET Research Conference 'No Frills'
Wednesday 5 July - Friday 7 July 2017, co-hosted with TasTAFE, Hobart, Tasmania
Are you interested in presenting at our annual national research conference? We are now accepting abstracts for oral and poster presentations that address the conference theme Skilling for tomorrow. Abstract submissions are open until Monday 20 February 2017.
Don't miss out, submit your abstract now.
AVETMISS news for RTOs
AVETMISS 8.0 for VET providers
The AVETMISS publications, AVETMISS VET Provider Collection specifications and AVETMISS data element definitions, have been updated for release 8.0 and are now available. An overview of the changes and a document detailing the specifics of the changes can be found at AVETMISS 8.0 for VET providers: what’s changing from release 7.0. RTOs and SMS vendors should refer to these to ensure their systems and processes are ready for the first collection under the new release. Release 8.0 will come into effect for training activity from January 2018. All training activities undertaken prior to the end of 2017 will continue to be reported under release 7.0.
For more information, view the Get ready for AVETMISS release 8.0 webinar online.