The first issue is VET\u2019s congested landscape and confusing system. As the paper points out:<\/p>\n

\u2018The large number of stakeholders in the system has led to a congested training landscape and associated employer and apprentice confusion. Similarly, the lack of consistency of approaches across states and territories (lack of harmonisation) has made the apprenticeship system difficult to navigate for national employers.\u2019<\/p>\n

The second is that the data clearly show \u2018that those who complete have, on
\naverage, better outcomes than those who don\u2019t.\u2019 That\u2019s the good news. However, the trends in completion rates are interesting too, with data over the last 20 years showing changes in both the completion rates overall and the rates of those that completed early.<\/p>\n

The paper points out that \u2018completions steadily increased and peaked in 2012\u201413 for the non-trades and in 2013\u201414 for the trades and have declined since then, particularly for the non-trades.\u2019 It was also found that \u2018the proportion of trade apprenticeships completed within two years or fewer began increasing from 2007\u201408 and peaked in 2013\u201414 at 46% of all completions, before declining.\u2019 This may have been because of the winding up of the Australian Accelerated Apprenticeships Initiative Program, which ran from 2011 to 2016.<\/p>\n

The third issue is incentives and, while they can be advantageous and get employers into the system, the research also shows that \u2018poorly targeted incentives can lead to increased uptake but can also have unintended consequences and lead to inferior outcomes for apprentices and trainees.\u2019<\/p>\n