This paper presents some thoughts on the concept of the Tasmanian Polytechnic, drawing on a range of research mostly undertaken by NCVER. It considers a number of 'goals' that are relevant to judging the success of the endeavour, including Year 12 retention and the completion of Australian Qualifications Framework qualifications, before making a number of observations on relevant issues.
The vocational education and training sector (VET) has a reputation for providing learners with a second chance. This report critically examines this idea, and finds that although VET provides opportunities for a second chance at education to many prospective students, the percentage who complete their studies and gain a qualification is modest.
Vocational education and training (VET) is much more important to young people than might be immediately apparent. This paper focuses on how young people participate in vocational education and training, what they study and their outcomes. Of particular note is the importance of VET for those young people who do not proceed on the conventional academic path of 12 years of school followed by university.
Using wage data from the Student Outcomes Survey, this study examines whether there is a pay off to actually completing a vocational education and training (VET) qualification, noting that many VET students do not complete full qualifications.
This paper models completions for traditional apprenticeships on the basis of commencements from 1995 to 2005. These models are used to understand the dynamics of the relationship between commencements and completions in order to predict the number of future completions. On the basis of the models, it is expected that completions will increase in the future. The models allow the paper to comment on the variation in completion rates across states/territories and changes in them over time.
Discussion about Australia's ageing population has focused on the importance of increasing labour force participation rates of older people. This paper examines the influence of education and training on the participation of older people in the labour market, and the pay-off of undertaking education and training as an older-person compared to earlier in life. On the whole, the results indicate the more qualifications the better, and education, lifelong learning and training are beneficial to maintaining and increasing employment rates. Qualifications acquired later in life have as good, and in some cases, better, pay-off to employment-to-population rates for older age groups, suggesting education is an effective strategy for older people seeking employment. The authors also suggest that increasing education levels will partially offset the impact of ageing on labour force participation.