Late last year NCVER provided its annual student outcomes report.
It provides details for qualification completers and part-completers, short course completers and part-completers and subject only completers. You can download a pdf of the full report here.
What the survey report tells us
Overall, not much changes from year to year with student outcomes, although the devil is probably in the detail at local provider and course levels!
The survey had just over 230,000 respondents who completed or part-completed qualifications, short courses or studied one or more individual subjects. It found that between 56 and 65% get an improved employment status after training. Satisfaction is also high at 90%+ for most groups, although that for qualification part-completers is significantly lower at around 79%. Satisfaction is also broken down based on a number of key training features, including the teaching, assessment and the training overall.
In relation to the training provider, the survey looks at their satisfaction with its location, support services, facilities and learning resources. They also are asked whether they would recommend the provider to others.
The main reason for undertaking training for those surveyed was to get a job or provide extra skills for the job (especially so for subject only completers) or because it was a job requirement (this was particularly so for those undertaking short courses or subject only enrolees).
The main reason for not completing training for those undertaking qualifications or short course were for personal reasons or that they changed jobs or started a new job.
Coping with COVID
For those undertaking training in qualifications in 2020, just over half (52%) of qualification completers had their training shift to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For part-completers the figure was similar, at around 46%.
And the major challenges of COVID were…
The lack of face to face interaction with teachers and trainers or with their fellow students/peers. This applied both to those doing qualifications or short courses. But other significant challenges included the lack of opportunity to get experience in the workplace, lack of suitable subject matter or unreliable internet at home. 32.5% of qualification part-completers reported their reason for not continuing the training was due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the good news is that…
Between 80 and 86% of qualification completers or part-completers received support from their training provider to transition to online learning and nearly 90% of completers and 85% of part-completers were satisfied with the support offered.
For those doing short courses about 78% of completers got support and around 90% of them were satisfied with the support provided. For the part-completers the results were similar, with 75.4% saying they received support from their training provider to transition to online learning. Of them, 90% were also satisfied with the support offered.
