VET in Schools 2025

Description

This publication provides data and insights on vocational education and training (VET) in schools, drawing on data to 31 December 2025.

VET in Schools is undertaken by students as part of their secondary schooling, aiming to build workplace skills and pathways for students, and can support school-based apprenticeships and traineeships (SBAT).

VET subjects often contribute to the achievement of a senior secondary certificate of education (SSCE), although the integration of VET into the school curriculum differs by state and territory and the completion of a full VET qualification is not necessarily a prerequisite to attain a SSCE.

Any registered training organisation (RTO) may deliver VET in Schools, including secondary schools themselves (where appropriate registration is held), as well as TAFEs, community education providers, and private RTOs contracted to work with schools.

VET in Schools is typically delivered from Year 10 through Year 12, although some jurisdictions offer introductory VET study as early as Year 9. This publication focuses on ‘School-aged’ students aged 19 years and under¹, which comprise 99.7% of all VET in Schools students.

Report

In 2025, compared to 2024, amongst ‘School-aged’ students there were:

• 276,860 students, an increase of 11,005 (4.1%),
• 412,840 program enrolments, predominantly qualifications, an increase of 18,860 (4.8%), and
• 151,485 program completions, an increase of 9,180 (6.4%).

Continuing the growth observed last year, VET in Schools student, enrolment, and completion numbers in 2025 are all at their highest levels since the collection began in 2006.

Students

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported 1,224,615 secondary school students aged 14 to 19 in 2025². The total of 276,820 VET in Schools students of the same age range therefore represents an estimated participation rate of 22.6% amongst the Australian school-aged population in 2025, which is a slight increase from 22.1% in 2024.

Queensland holds both the highest participation rate and overall student numbers of any state/territory across Australia, and has done so consistently since the introduction of the Queensland Certificate of Education in 2008. Western Australia’s participation rate has declined since 2019 following increased pathway flexibility in the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE), but remains third highest nationally just behind the Northern Territory. The Australian Capital Territory’s participation rate and overall VET student numbers have continued to decline year-on-year over the past decade.

Tracking changes in student numbers amongst key equity and priority groups helps evaluate whether VET in Schools is improving access and uptake amongst students who may face barriers to completing secondary schooling and/or benefit from this alternative pathway to a senior secondary qualification and future career.

Nationally, in 2025, many of the cohorts governments typically focus on to improve access and participation saw increases in VET student numbers relative to 2024. This included females, Indigenous students, students with disabilities, and those living in regional and remote areas.

Nationally, the proportion of VET in Schools students participating in school-based apprenticeships and traineeships in 2025 was 7.2%, or 19,825 students, and has remained around 7-9% for the last decade. Tasmania has typically held the highest proportion of school-based apprentice and trainees as a share of all their VET in Schools activity over the past decade, sitting at 10.9% in 2025. However, South Australia has seen a noticeable increase in the number of school-based apprenticeships and traineeships, up 3.2 percentage points from 2024, to a total of 11.1% of VET in Schools students.

Note that most apprenticeships and traineeships amongst those 19 years and younger are not school-based. For more information, see NCVER’s apprentices and trainees 2025: December quarter report.

The ABS reports that across Australia the majority (57.3%) of secondary students were at government schools in 2025². Consistent with this, most VET in Schools is also delivered at government schools. In 2025, 60.3% of VET in Schools students attended government schools.

Program enrolments

VET in Schools training is aligned to nationally recognised VET programs, with most activity in training package qualifications. Training packages are structured around industry-defined and endorsed skills frameworks. However, accredited qualifications, courses, or training package skill sets (where recognised) may also contribute to students’ schooling.

In 2025, school-aged students trained in:

• 383,335 training package qualifications, an increase of 18,135 (5.0%) from 2024,
• 29,465 accredited qualifications, an increase of 740 (2.6%) from 2024, and
• 35 training package skill sets, down from 50 in 2024.

Enrolments in food and hospitality-related programs remain strong, with Certificate II in Hospitality (SIT20322) attracting the highest number of enrolments nationally in 2025, and was the most commonly enrolled in program in New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory.

Programs focused on building and construction saw growth in 2025. The Certificate II in Construction Pathways (CPC20220) was the top qualification in both South Australia and Tasmania, and ranked within the top five for New South Wales, the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory. The top qualifications in Western Australia and Queensland were more employability and foundation skills-focused.

Subject load pass rates

In 2025, the overall subject load pass rate was 86.3%, an increase of 0.3 percentage points from 2024.

NCVER uses subject load pass rates to report on the success of a program’s underlying VET subject activity. The subject load pass rate is the proportion of successfully completed subjects, weighted by the nominal hours required for each subject to reduce the influence of shorter subjects on the overall result. This is an alternative indicator of the success of VET study in school (compared to program completions), as students are often required to complete a specific number of hours or gain credits to receive a senior secondary certificate.

In 2025, the subject load pass rate for Certificate I and III programs increased relative to 2024. There was a small decline in the subject load pass rate for Certificate II programs. Subject load pass rates were broadly consistent with 2024 below Certificate I level or at Certificate IV or Higher, although these categories have much lower levels of activity.

Program completions

In 2025, school-aged students completed 151,485 programs. Currently, 2025 is the highest single year of completions by VET in Schools students, up 6.4% on 2024.

As with VET in Schools enrolments, the vast majority of completions were in Certificate II and III level programs, with both recording growth relative to 2024 (up 6.2% and 8.6%, respectively).

Completions of VET in Schools programs increased amongst most priority cohorts, including females (up 6.5%), Indigenous students (up 10.4%), students with a disability (up 10.3%), and regional and remote students (up 8.9%).

The number of completions in Certificate I level programs has held steady since 2023, but is down historically from numbers exceeding those of Certificate III programs a decade ago. This trend reflects a shift away from enrolments (and therefore completions) in Certificate I level programs and towards higher levels of VET in Schools programs, which has been observed since the collection began in 2006.