This NCVER report and associated documents for 2023 was released late last year. It covers both student outcomes and satisfaction for qualification and course completers as well as part completers. It also covers short course and subject only completers as well as short course part completers. So, it’s pretty comprehensive.
What the data tell us
As NCVER’s media release confirms,
- “two-thirds of students who completed a vocational qualification at certificate I or above had an improved employment outcome post-training, up 2.6 percentage points from the previous year.”
And
- “50.6% of graduates who did not have a job before training were employed after training [while]
- 37.8% of graduates who had a job before training were in a better job after training.”
Improvements in employment status
There were also significant improvements in employment status after training for other groups with around 59% of qualification part-completers having an improvement, a similar outcome to 2022. Short course completers and part completers and subject only completers also showed improvements at around 65%, 68.5% and 66.5% respectively. All these percentages were up on those from 2022.
In addition, nearly 80% of graduates “were employed after training, the highest level seen since the survey was expanded in 2016 to cover all nationally recognised training.” Most commonly qualification completers undertake training to get a job. However, training being a requirement of the job was also common, particularly for short course completers, short course part-completers and subject(s) only completers.
Reasons for discontinuing study are also reported. Indeed, in 2023, 21.3% of qualification part-completers discontinued their training because they changed jobs or started a new job, while 20.7% discontinued due to personal reasons. Other reasons covered included that the training was not as expected or no longer related to plans or that discontinuers had completed all intended training or started other training.
Satisfaction levels with the training undertaken
“Satisfaction with training was high, with 89% of graduates satisfied with the training overall and [nearly 85%] recommending their training provider.” However, only around 77% for qualification part-completers were satisfied, as might be expected.
Satisfaction levels were even higher for the shorter courses with 93.4% for short course completers, 91.5% for short course part-completers, and 92.4% for subject(s) only completers satisfied with the training they received.
The report is far more comprehensive than reported here and so is well worth a look for the additional detail and insights it provides. It’s particularly interesting to contrast qualification and short course information. Satisfaction levels, the reasons for undertaking the chosen course and the associated benefits respondents note are also quite interesting.
Other resources available
These include the VET student outcomes 2023 DataBuilder application as well as a series of VET student outcomes 2023 excel tables, including: