’Twas the week before Christmas and… on 18 December 2024 the NCVER delivered us all an early Christmas present.
The NCVER’s gift was the 2024 VET Student Outcomes report – which outlines the impact the VET sector had on students’ and graduates’ skills development and careers.
Last year the survey had responses from 243,778 VET students and the overwhelming majority said that their VET studies helped them achieve what they were looking for from their training.
Specifically:
- almost 9 in 10 VET qualification completers said they achieved their main reason for doing their training (down less than 1% on 2023 results to 87.4%), and
- more than three-quarters (77%) of part-qualification completers achieved what they wanted from their VET study.
Student satisfaction levels were also strong – so congratulations to all the VET trainers and assessors, RTO support staff and frontline VET administration staff who collectively help ensure VET delivers consistently strong student satisfaction rates.
Although once again VET qualification completers had higher levels of satisfaction (89.5%) than students who only partly-completed their courses (77.8%).
The other important outcome for many VET students is achieving an improved employment outcome after their VET studies.
Unfortunately in 2024 slightly fewer VET students improved their employment status after their studies than students did in 2023. This finding was true for both qualification completers, where 64.4% improved their employment outcomes after their studies, and part-qualification completers (56.0%). Collectively both groups of students recorded a 3% drop on this measure compared with the previous year.
It is important to keep in mind when reflecting on this finding, that changes in peoples’ employment status after training are not due solely to a VET provider delivering good quality, industry-relevant, training. Employment outcomes are also contingent on the strength of the labour market.
However, the latest ABS data shows that the Australian labour market in 2024 was in an historically strong position, achieving similar levels of performance as it had in 2023. Which means this indicator of improved employment status after training is one the VET sector should keep a close eye on, as it looks at how well we are preparing students for the changing world of work.
