Each year the OECD releases a comprehensive data-driven report on education across all sectors and its latest, Education at a Glance 2025, is out. It treats VET and tertiary education a little differently than we do in Australia.
AQF I and II Certificates are categorised as “lower secondary” by the OECD (International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED, Level 2).
AQF III Certificates are “upper secondary” (ISCED Level 3, ie equivalent to years 11 and 12).
AQF IV Certificates are “post-secondary non-tertiary” (ISCED Level 4) and Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas (ISCED Level 5) are “Short cycle tertiary” education.
And with that by way of background, here’s where Australia stands on some key indicators relative to other OECD countries:
- “The share of young adults (25-34 year-olds) without upper secondary attainment continues to decline across the OECD, reaching an average of 13%. This trend also continues in Australia, where the share fell from 9% to 8% between 2019 and 2024.”
- Completing upper secondary education reduces the risk of unemployment. On average across the OECD, 12.9% of “economically active young adults (25-34 year-olds) without an upper secondary qualification are unemployed, compared to 6.9% of those with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment.” In Australia 7.2% of young adults without an upper secondary qualification are unemployed, compared to just 4% of young adults with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment.
- Australia’s “upper secondary students” ie those at school studying years 11 and 12 and those doing a VET Certificate III qualification are all (1005) able to go onto further tertiary study if they successfully complete their upper secondary qualification – the highest rate in the OECD and a testimony to Australia’s emphasis on student pathways through school, VET and higher education. The OECD average is 91% able to go on from upper secondary to further tertiary study but ranges as low as 31% for students in the UK, 38% in Belgium and Chile, and 66% in Ireland.
The OECD describes a range of positives associated with work-based learning. It provides students with “powerful environments for the acquisition of both technical and soft skills”, reduces the costs of delivering training (because it offers opportunities for students to learn on modern equipment which “is often costly and quickly becomes obsolete”), can help mitigate teacher shortages – because students can learn from “experienced skilled workers in companies”, and provides important linkages between students and potential employers.
Despite these benefits – Australia (36%) is below the OECD average (45%) on the proportion of students undertaking some form of work-based training. These figures are well below Denmark, Hungary, Ireland and Latvia where 100% of “upper secondary vocational students” do workplacements. Switzerland (91%) and Germany (89%) also put a very high value on workplacements.
