Description
The purpose of this paper looks at the fundamental issue of whether VET does improve the employment prospects of the groups in question. It exploits data from the Student Outcome Survey to construct samples that proxy three welfare groups and models the post-training employment outcomes.
Summary
About the research
One of the most important social policy pushes in recent years has been to encourage individuals in the receipt of welfare payments to take up paid work. Welfare to Work initiatives have focused on four particular groups:
- parents of children aged between 6 and 15 years; these recipients will be required to seek part-time work if their youngest child has reached the age of 6 years
- mature-aged recipients aged between 50 and 64 years
- people with disabilities who can work part-time; this group will be required to seek part-time work
- the long-term unemployed.
An important aspect of this policy is the role that training plays in enabling individuals from these groups to obtain paid employment. In particular, it might be expected that vocational education and training (VET), with its emphasis on providing a ‘second chance’, would play an important role. The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) has recently published two reports on this: T he role of vocational education and training in welfare to work by John Guenther, Ian Falk and Allan Arnott and Complex not simple: The vocational education and training pathway from welfare to work by Kate Barnett and John Spoehr. Both have focused on how VET can be delivered effectively to these groups.
The purpose of this paper, Welfare to work: Does vocational education and training make a difference? by Tom Karmel, Kevin Mark and Nhi Nguyen, looks at the more fundamental issue of whether VET does improve the employment prospects of the groups in question. It exploits data from the Student Outcomes Survey to construct samples that proxy the first three of the welfare groups listed above and models the post-training employment outcomes.
Key messages
- The completion of certificate III and above significantly improves employment prospects.
- The partial completion of a qualification or the completion of a certificate I or II is not likely to assist employment prospects.
- The impact of training is dependent on the underlying chances of employment of individuals. If they are reasonably high, then training is less likely to have an impact.
The conclusion is that VET can make a difference, but not any VET, and not for all individuals.
Tom Karmel
Managing Director, NCVER