Vocational education and training workforce data 2008: A compendium

There has been a continued interest in the numbers and characteristics of those who make up the vocational education and training (VET) sector’s own workforce. To address this, the Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) commissioned the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) to undertake three projects, updating previous work (NCVER 2004). Each project generated a report which is included in this compendium:

Key messages

• The first report, ‘Getting the measure of the VET professional: An update’, draws on analyses of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data from the Survey of Education and Training (SET) and the Census of Population and Housing to provide an updated demographic profile of VET professionals and VET practitioners.

• The second report, ‘National TAFE workforce study 2008’, provides national data on the TAFE workforce in 2008 and, where possible, compares this with 2002 data.

• The final report, ‘VET workforce collection: Feasibility report’, considers what needs to be known about the national VET workforce and what options are available for collecting that information.

The reports confirm the difficulty of getting accurate information and numbers for the VET workforce at present. We know little about the movement into and out of the sector and the career paths of VET staff. Nor do we understand much about the qualifications—teaching and vocational— VET staff hold. This type of information is important if there is to be a national approach to building a more ‘professional’ VET workforce.

Tom Karmel
Managing Director, NCVER