Succeeding against the odds: The outcomes attained by Indigenous students in Aboriginal community-controlled adult education colleges

This report presents the results of the first comprehensive quantitative study of the outcomes achieved by Indigenous people enrolling in vocational education and training (VET) courses in colleges within the Aboriginal community-controlled adult education sector.

Over the past 40 years an independent Aboriginal community-controlled adult education sector has been developing in Australia. Colleges within this sector were established especially to meet the education and training aspirations of Indigenous people who had not had adequate access to appropriate schooling and basic education when they were younger. In recent years the focus has shifted more and more to the provision of especially designed formal and accredited VET programs, many with a particular focus on training people for effective participation in Indigenous community organisations.

A recently released report, Making a difference: The impact of Australia's Indigenous education and training policy (Robinson & Bamblett 1998), shows that there has been major progress in Indigenous education over the past decade. This report, Succeeding against the odds, shows just what a valuable contribution the Aboriginal community-controlled adult education sector has been making to the improvement in Indigenous education and training.

The study reports the results of a survey of the outcomes achieved by 389 students who completed programs in Aboriginal community-controlled adult education colleges in 1997. The largest four colleges of the nine-member Federation of Independent Aboriginal Education Providers (FIAEP) participated and a response rate of 57 per cent was achieved.

The results are broadly representative of the sector as the four colleges participating in the study comprised over 80 per cent of the total 1997 enrolments in accredited programs in Aboriginal community-controlled colleges.

The study was managed by the FIAEP and took place from April 1998 to March 1999. It was jointly sponsored by the FIAEP and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).

Independent Aboriginal community-controlled colleges have attracted Indigenous students from a diversity of backgrounds, ages, locations (especially from rural and remote areas), languages and cultures. The VET courses the respondents enrolled in ranged from the most basic level of VET provision through to the most advanced VET courses, with a significantly higher proportion studying at professional and para-professional levels than is the case for Indigenous students in the rest of the VET sector.

Several significant findings emerge from this study that have been quantified for the first time.

First, a very large proportion of the students enrolled in independent colleges come from the most severely disadvantaged of backgrounds, especially in relation to having had little or no adequate prior educational experiences, but also in relation to significant social indicators such as having had inordinately high levels of unemployment, ill health and contact with the law and the justice system. For example, 20 per cent of the respondents reported a background of serious alcohol abuse and 15 per cent reported other forms of drug abuse (not including tobacco). An extraordinary 46 per cent of students had not completed Year 10 secondary schooling (compared with only 28 per cent of Indigenous students in the VET sector as a whole), and only one-third of students had experienced employment in the three years before 1997.

The second significant finding to emerge from this study is that, despite this degree of disadvantage among the students, their educational outcomes from the VET programs in 1997 were actually higher, in terms of pass rates, than Indigenous outcomes attained from the VET sector as a whole. What was most remarkable was that the pass rates in the independent Indigenous sector marginally exceeded the national pass rates for the VET sector as a whole. Some 62 per cent of module enrolments in the independent sector resulted in a pass, compared with 45 per cent for Indigenous module enrolments in the VET sector as a whole. This compares with some 60 per cent of all module enrolments in VET resulting in a pass. This truly remarkable result is thought to be due in part to the additional support and more accommodating environment provided for Indigenous students in Aboriginal community-controlled educational organisations. It should be noted that these measures of student performance differ from those used to gauge the system's performance.

Another important finding concerns the employment and other positive outcomes attained by students as a result of undertaking study in the Aboriginal community-controlled VET sector. Fewer than 20 per cent of students were employed while undertaking their course. The employment rate rose to 36 per cent in the follow-up study of their job status at least four months after completion of the course. Some 13 per cent of students had obtained a new paid job or were self-employed. A further 11 per cent had obtained employment under the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP). Some 6 per cent worked in an unpaid capacity in community or cultural work. The remainder of the employed group, already in employment, reported either a promotion or better performance in their existing job as a result of their study. While these employment outcomes are not as high as those obtained by Indigenous students in more urbanised situations in the VET sector as a whole, they are nevertheless extremely encouraging given the student profiles found in independent Aboriginal community-controlled colleges. The results of this study also confirm the importance of this sector as a training ground for employment in Aboriginal community organisations.

Just as important as the employment outcomes achieved were the other positive outcomes reported by the students enrolled in 1997. Around one-third of the respondents continued their study within the sector. Another 24 per cent undertook further education and training elsewhere. Some 21 per cent of respondents reported that their educational experience in an Aboriginal community-controlled college was the key factor in helping them to sort out their lives; nearly 15 per cent said it helped strengthen their Aboriginal identity; and over 36 per cent said the experience had made them more confident.

The results of this study provide quantitative evidence of the special and unique contribution that the independent Aboriginal community-controlled sector makes to Indigenous people's vocational education and training in Australia. The study clearly demonstrates for the first time that the sector has produced very impressive outcomes for the Indigenous students choosing a VET course in an Indigenous community-controlled learning environment. The educational outcomes being achieved are impressive when compared with those being achieved by Indigenous students in Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions and other VET providers, despite the greater educational and social disadvantage faced by the bulk of the Indigenous student body in the independent Aboriginal sector. Their outcomes also rate highly when compared with the educational outcomes being achieved by all VET students in Australia.

While this study has not explored the resource inputs or public funding levels of independent Aboriginal community-controlled VET institutions, it does show that such expenditure is justifiable in terms of the outcomes being achieved.