While vocational education and training (VET) graduates are finding work after they finish their training, employment has not returned to pre-economic downturn levels.
New data released by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) shows that 77.4% of graduates were employed after training, compared with 80.7% in 2008.
Ms Sandra Pattison, General Manager, Statistics, NCVER said while employment has increased slightly since 2010 for VET graduates (1.1 percentage points), it is yet to recover fully from the economic downturn.
“Those who completed training in the sales workers and machinery operators and drivers fields have been the slowest to recover, with the proportion employed after training down by 5.6 and 11.6 percentage points respectively compared with 2008,” Ms Pattison said.
“However, graduates trained as managers had better employment prospects in 2011 than they did in 2008, with the proportion employed after training up 6.0 percentage points.
“The data also show that graduates who were not employed before starting their training found it harder to gain employment, with the proportion employed after training 4.3 percentage points lower than in 2008.”
The Student outcomes survey 2011, sent to over 300 000 students across the nation also found:
- 78.2% of graduates thought their training was relevant to their current job
- 32.4% of graduates were enrolled in further study after training
- 89.3% of graduates were satisfied with the overall quality of their training.
Copies of Australian vocational education and training statistics: student outcomes 2011, are available from www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2442.html
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