Qualification utilisation: occupational outcomes - overview

Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) system is focused on providing students with the skills needed for work in various occupations and trades. The system is closely connected to industry, with VET training packages developed by industry skills councils. Because of this, it might be expected that the training will lead to jobs in specific areas. This overview looks at whether graduates of VET qualifications end up in the intended occupation of their qualification or whether they end up employed elsewhere. And if they are employed elsewhere, is their training still useful to their current job. It updates and builds upon work previously published by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER; Karmel, Mlotkowski & Awodeyi 2008).

Data from the Student Outcomes Survey are used to correlate the intended occupation of training with the destination occupation of graduates. Furthermore, other factors are added to the analysis to determine their influence on the relationship between intended and destination occupations. These are qualification level, labour force status before training, age, the completion of a module only, and industry area. An accompanying support document contains the data tables.

Key messages

• Trades tend to have stronger matches between the intended occupation of the training and the jobs graduates get.
• On a similar note, highly regulated industries, such as the electrotechnology, communications and energy utilities industries, indicate a stronger match between intended and destination occupations than those that relate to a more generalist set of skills, for example, innovation and business.
• Certificates III and IV result in a higher overall match between intended and destination occupations than certificates I and II and diplomas and higher. Diploma and above graduates are also much more likely to be employed at a lower skill level than that of their intended occupation by comparison with graduates of other qualification levels.
• There is little difference in the overall match for existing workers, younger new entrants and older new entrants. However, there is some variation between occupation groups and industry areas. For example, older new entrants have a much higher match for the community services area than do the other categories.
• In most instances, completing a qualification results in a stronger match between intended and destination occupations. The exception is for the managers occupation group, where module completers have a higher match than graduates.
• Many VET graduates who do not end up employed in their intended occupation still find their training to be relevant to their current job and some also end up employed at a higher skill level than their intended occupation.

Rod Camm
Managing Director, NCVER