A recent report from Dr Tom Karmel, former Managing Director of the NCVER and now member of the Advisory Board of Holmesglen Institute’s Mackenzie Research Institute.
It is in that capacity that Dr Karmel has recently completed a discussion paper looking at the Australian tertiary education sector.
Australia’s tertiary education system: An update makes a number of ‘grim’ findings for the VET sector – which serve to reinforce the need for the recommended tertiary harmonisation roadmap proposed by JSA. The grim findings include:
- “over the longer term VET has been in decline and higher education is now the dominant form of tertiary education. The idea that VET is a genuine alternative to higher education is becoming harder to sustain. A bachelor degree is the largest category of qualifications. From the point of view of a school leaver, VET is only a viable alternative to higher education for a minority of students.”
- “tertiary education participation is no longer on an upward trajectory. VET government funded commencements in VET were at a peak in 2011, thereafter declining despite an upturn in 2022 to 2023. By contrast higher education commencements have generally been increasing, but the 2022 number is well below that of 2020 and 2021.”
- “tertiary education has become noticeably feminised. Women have higher educational qualifications than men. In higher education, 60% of students commencing a bachelor degree are women. In government funded VET, there are around 75% of women studying at diploma or higher level, and just over 50% in Certificates III/IV. Men dominate only Certificates I/II. One can only speculate at the implications for this for the role of men in our society.”
Dr Karmel states that “VET has never been that attractive to school leavers and is even less so these days because curriculum is primarily year 11 or 12 standard and most school leavers have completed year 12.”
He also argues that “in a modern economy VET’s narrow courses are outdated”. Governments and the sector at large will therefore be hoping that the recently agreed national VET Qualifications Reform will help to change that, and encourage greater use of the VET sector by industry and existing workers.
