Participation in vocational education and training across Australia: A regional analysis

There are wide variations in participation and take-up of vocational education and training (VET) across regions in Australia. Investigating the reasons for these differences was one of the tasks undertaken by a consortium of researchers from the National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University, and the Centre for Post-compulsory Education and Lifelong Learning, University of Melbourne, in work commissioned by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research.

Walstab and Lamb set out to identify the main drivers of and barriers to participation in regional Australia. Having mapped regional participation rates, they went on to identify ‘exceptional’ regions, those with unusually high or low rates of participation, and to draw conclusions about what drives regional differences in VET participation.

Key messages

• Economic factors have a strong influence on participation in VET. The composition of industry structure plays a major part. So too do labour market conditions. As unemployment rates rise, participation tends to fall.

• These explanations do not, however, suffice when it comes to participation in the exceptional regions identified in the study, pointing to the significant impact that local policies, community partnerships and other specific factors can have on training rates.

• The large variations across the regions of Australia in rates of VET participation exist at all qualification levels but more so for basic and diploma levels.

• VET participation is stronger in the rural areas of Australia, particularly for basic- and middle-level VET awards. The reverse is true for participation in diploma-level VET.

• Patterns of participation across regions vary by type of provider, funding and mode of delivery. Some regions with lower levels of participation in technical and further education- (TAFE)-based VET have high levels of participation in VET delivered by private providers.

• Demographic factors are also important. This is noticeable at higher award levels, where participation is influenced by the social, cultural and educational backgrounds of the population.

• This report has a companion piece written by Richard Teese and Anne Walstab, Social area differences in vocational education and training participation. For a synthesis of this consortium’s entire program of work, see A well-skilled future by Sue Richardson and Richard Teese.

Tom Karmel
Managing Director, NCVER

This report is a component of the research program entitled A well-skilled future: Tailoring VET to the emerging labour market, in which the evolving labour market and changing work organisation and management in the context of the vocational education and training (VET) sector are examined. The research has been undertaken by a consortium of researchers from the National Institute of Labour Studies and the Centre for Post-compulsory Education and Lifelong Learning of the University of Melbourne.

This report aims to map patterns of VET participation and to identify the main drivers of participation in terms of both supply (provision factors) and demand (demographic and economic characteristics of communities). It does this by presenting two main types of analyses: the mapping of regional participation rates and regression analyses which predict participation, given key regional data.

The first type of analysis provides a series of maps which present regional participation rates in VET across Australia. The regions are based on Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Statistical Divisions for Australia. Each analysis of participation contains a map of Australia displaying these broad regions. For the major capital cities, Statistical Sub-divisions are used to measure variation across urban Australia. VET participation is categorised as: basic-level VET (enrolment in certificate II or II award-level courses); middle-level VET (enrolment in certificate III or IV award-level courses); and diploma-level VET (enrolment in diploma or associate diploma award courses).

The results of regression analyses help to identify the main factors that account for differences in participation rates across the regions. A range of demographic and economic factors are used to predict participation. The demographic factors include age, language background, Indigenous status, educational attainment levels, and remoteness (based on the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia [ARIA]). The economic factors include levels of unemployment and the industry profile (main Australian and New Zealand Industry Code [ANZIC] categories) of the regional populations in employment.

From the analyses it is possible to identify the regions where we cannot predict very well the levels of participation, based on the drivers included in the regression analyses. Further work on these regions will be important for gaining an understanding of local factors and policies that produce high levels of participation, as well as the factors that work as barriers inhibiting involvement of communities in VET.

Findings

Participation in VET reveals contrasting regional patterns. In particular, overall VET rates (award and non-award combined) were relatively high in non-metropolitan regions compared with urban areas. However, this varies by level of VET study. Rates of participation in basic level VET are much higher in non-metropolitan regions than in metropolitan regions. This situation is reversed for participation in diploma-level courses, where rates are much higher in city areas. This is a constant pattern, mirrored across the analyses of rates of participation by type of provider, mode of delivery, and source of funding. When rates are disaggregated by qualification level, the contrast between city and country regions becomes more extreme.

There are regions of the country where relatively high rates of participation occur consistently across a range of analyses. One of these regions is along the Murray River, the border of Victoria and New South Wales, where there are relatively high rates of participation compared with other parts of the nation. This is particularly so when looking at rates of total VET participation, campus-based VET and fee-for-service funded courses. Other regions that stand out include:

• The north-west corner of Australia (Pilbara and Kimberley regions) has high rates of participation in basic and middle-level VET.

• The Northern Territory has relatively low rates of participation in technical and further education (TAFE), but relatively high rates of participation in private providers.

• Central Queensland has relatively high rates of participation in middle-level VET (and particularly when this is delivered in TAFE).

• Tasmania and Victoria showed high regional rates of participation in employment-based VET.
  

Patterns of participation vary by type of provider, funding and mode of delivery. Some regions with lower levels of participation in TAFE-based VET have high levels of participation in VET delivered by private providers. For example, the Northern Territory has nationally low levels of participation in TAFE-delivered VET, but high rates for VET delivered by private providers. The national participation rate in VET courses delivered at private providers was 1.1%. However, the Northern Territory rate was 5%. The neighbouring Pilbara region in Western Australia also has a relatively high rate of 3.4% for all VET.

The results from the regression analyses suggest that participation in VET is influenced to a large degree by economic factors. Industry structure plays a major part. So to do labour market conditions. In this sense VET participation is largely dependent on a region’s economy and industry. As unemployment rates rise, participation tends to fall. This is the case across most levels of VET. Regions with more workers in retail, in manufacturing and in the hospitality industry tend to have higher rates of participation, all else equal. For all VET (award and non-award together), unemployment rates and industry structure accounted for almost 40% of the variation in participation rates.

Demographic factors are more important for participation at higher award levels, mainly diploma-level VET, but at other levels contributed little beyond that accounted for by economic factors in explaining regional differences.

Demographic factors are also important for participation in VET delivered by private providers. VET delivered by private providers is much more influenced by the characteristics of those living in the community than by labour market or industry structure. Demographic factors explained more than double the regional variation in participation in VET delivered by private providers than did economic factors. The reverse is true for TAFE-based VET.

By examining the differences in participation that cannot be attributed to the various factors (residual or unexplained variation), it was possible to identify the regions in which levels of participation are not explained very well by the economic and demographic factors included in the regression models. In these regions, levels of participation either exceed what might be expected, given the social and economic profiles of regions, or are well below what might be expected. It may be the case that local policies, such as community partnerships or other arrangements or programs, contribute to the unusual rates of participation.

Analyses of residuals derived from the regression models helped identify these ‘exceptional’ regions—where levels of participation are not explained very well by the economic, demographic and provision factors included in the regression models. In these regions, the level of participation is either exceeding what might be expected, given social and economic profile, or is underperforming. This is true for several regions. For award-level VET, regions with consistently above average rates include: East Gippsland (Victoria), Hume city (Victoria), Pilbara (Western Australia), Mallee (Victoria), Kimberley (Western Australia), and Mersey–Lyall (Tasmania). Regions with lower than expected rates of participation in all VET include Midlands (Western Australia), South West (Western Australia), Yorke and Lower North (South Australia), Moreton (Queensland) and Far North (Queensland).

Further work was undertaken to investigate whether there are policy, program, community or other factors which help shape the unusually high or low levels of participation apparent in the regions. This was achieved through case-study work of selected regions and is presented in the support document.

A further support document contains detailed maps showing participation rates across regions of Australia. It also contains the results of all of the regression analyses and analyses of the unexplained variations in order to identify ‘exceptional’ regions.