Mapping and tracking: Data collections for monitoring post-compulsory education and training

There is an increasing flow of students between the sectors at the post-compulsory level, yet relatively little is known about the educational and employment pathways of students moving between the sectors. Policy-makers and institutional planners need data on cross-sectoral student movement in order to understand changes in the demand for education and training and how best to meet student needs. Some of the cross-sectoral policy issues of interest to researchers are:

• transition from schooling to vocational education and training (equity, transition outcomes from different curriculum streams in school, program articulation, joint delivery, the value of careers education and guidance)
• transition from adult community education to vocational education and training (learning pathways, admission and selection, equity)
• transition from higher education to vocational education and training (the employment value of university courses, evaluating cross-sectoral programs, reducing university wastage by greater instructional use of technical and further education [TAFE])
• transition from vocational education and training to higher education (articulation, credit transfer, seamlessness, access and equity)
• transition from schools, vocational education and training and higher education to adult community education (lifelong learning)

The purpose of the study is to identify the capacity of existing data collections to provide nationally comparable information on these cross-sectoral dimensions of student participation in post-compulsory education and training. The project brief designated the following research questions:

• What data elements in the existing collections provide information relevant to cross-sectoral dimensions of post-compulsory education and training?
• To what extent do these current measures meet the information needs of researchers and policy-makers? What information needs are not able to be adequately met by the current collections?
• What modifications could be made to the existing collections to improve the scope, utility and comparability of data?
• What are the constraints on achieving these improvements?
• What would be the desirable directions for policy and research in the future?

In addressing these questions, the authors of this consultation paper found that the data collections for each sector have some strengths and weaknesses in terms of their potential for tracking cross-sectoral student movement. The authors suggest the following modifications to improve the utility and comparability of the data collections for researchers and policy-makers monitoring student movement between the sectors.

Schools

The National Schools' Statistics Collection (NSSC) is of limited usefulness in monitoring post-compulsory participation or student transitions to further education and training because it is not based on unit-level student records. Although student background characteristics are recorded by schools at the time of enrolment and often aggregated to the system level, these data are not currently reported in the National Schools' Statistics Collection. One way to improve the comparability and utility of the NSSC would be to draw the annual schools census from a unit-level database based on student enrolment records. This approach could also enhance the estimation of Year 12 retention if a student ID number were assigned to secondary school students. If the schools census was compiled from unit-record data, the NSSC would have the same basic structure as the National VET Provider Collection and Higher Education Statistics Collection.

Proposed modifications

The NSSC should:

• draw the annual schools census from a unit-level database based on student enrolment records
• report the level of participation in vocational education and training (VET)-accredited subjects and work experience programs among school students
• assign student ID numbers to secondary students

Vocational education and training

Although the NCVER is undertaking work involving matching clients in different collections in order to track students over time, the National VET Provider Collection, which is based on the Australian VET Management Information Statistics Standard (AVETMISS), can only be used in a limited way to map cross-sectoral movement of students directly from the data fields. This is partly because information on past education and training activity or achievements of students is collected at a general level without reference to sector or provider (or jurisdiction or region). Another reason is non-response of students in completing relevant questions at the time of enrolment. It is likely that the complexity of the information requested under the AVETMIS Standard, while enhancing the data?s potential usefulness to researchers, contributes to the high non-response rate on certain data items. The following recommendations therefore need to be considered in terms of their potential impact on student response rates.

Proposed modifications

The National VET Provider Collection should report:

• the name and postcode of the school attended
• the type of school attended (that is, government, Catholic, other non-government)
• the most recent form of education participation by type of course, whether it was award or non-award, complete or incomplete and the type of provider (that is, TAFE institute, community provider, private VET provider, university etc.)
• the highest qualification attempted, the relevant year and the name, postcode and type of provider

NCVER, which is the agency responsible for the National VET Provider Collection should continue to develop strategies to reduce non-response rates by respondents, particularly in reporting prior educational experience.

Higher education

The Higher Education Statistics Collection maintained by the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) provides considerable detail about the prior educational experience of students which assists in monitoring cross-sectoral movement, particularly from TAFE institutions to university. However, information on past education and training activity or achievements of students is collected at a general level without reference to sector or provider (or jurisdiction or region). The higher education data collection cannot provide information relevant to cross-sectoral policy issues such as transition to higher education from adult and community education.

Proposed modifications

The Higher Education Statistics Collection should report:

• the name and postcode of the school attended, and the type of school attended (that is, government, catholic, and other non-government)
• details of the most recent educational institution attended, including whether it was a community provider and its postcode address

Adult community education

The adult community education sector is a significant provider of education and training at the local community level. It is important to monitor student movement through adult and community education (ACE) activities to improve our understanding of the role of all forms of education and training in promoting lifelong learning. However it would be premature to discuss the potential for monitoring cross-sectoral movement in regard to the ACE sector until fundamental issues regarding reporting standards are resolved. The National VET Provider Collection has the potential to monitor ACE activity but currently captures only about half of all ACE provision. Where ACE activity is reported through the AVETMIS Standard, the data are characterised by higher rates of non-response than other types of provision.

Proposed modifications

The proposed modifications in relation to ACE are:

• To assist in future efforts to improve the quality of ACE statistics either through institutional collections or surveys, State and Territory education authorities should maintain up-to-date registers of all types of ACE providers within their jurisdiction, according to an agreed national typology.
• The National Training Statistics Committee should investigate ways of making it easier for ACE providers to report information on ACE activity to the National VET Provider Collection while ensuring that a minimum level of information on a student's prior educational experience is sought.

Future directions for policy and research

Recognising that the sector-based institutional data collections are a potentially valuable source of data on student transitions, the authors suggest that directions for future policy and research should seek to:

• maximise the consistency of data fields in each institutional data collection and identify common data fields (based on agreed systems of classification) that should be incorporated in the future
• develop a mechanism for reporting all forms of participation in education and training (both award and non-award) in each institutional data collection
• explore the potential of institutional data collections to provide a longitudinal perspective on student pathways through mechanisms such as a unique student identifier portable across all sectors