Participation in Vocational Education and Training (VET), including secondary students

Microsoft Excel download  Dataset excel download   User guide  User guide

The Key Performance Measure (KPM) related to VET specified in the Measurement Framework for Schooling in Australia is:

Key Performance Measure 1(f) Participation of young people, including secondary students, in VET
Proportion of the population aged 15–19 years who, in the calendar year, successfully completed at least one unit of competency as part of a VET qualification at AQF Certificate II or above.

In addition to the KPM, the tables below show two approved program measures for VET:
VET program measure 1
Occupation and industry profile of VET engagement for 15–19-year-olds who in the calendar year, successfully completed at least one unit of competency/module as a part of a VET qualification at AQF Certificate II or above.
VET program measure 2 Level of AQF certification for 15–19-year-olds who in the calendar year successfully completed a VET qualification.

In the tables and graphs below "participating" is defined as "having successfully completed at least one unit of competency".

Further information about data points in charts can be obtained from the tool tips by hovering over the data point in the chart.


Notes and caveats

    • Key performance measure for schooling in Australia 1(f) - Participation of young people, including secondary students, in VET
      Proportion of the population aged 15–19 years who, in the calendar year, successfully completed at least one unit of competency as part of a VET qualification at AQF Certificate II or above.
    • The KPM for participation in VET includes all 15–19-year-old VET students (whether or not they are enrolled in school) as a proportion of the 15–19-year-old population. Students are counted as participating if they have successfully completed at least one unit of competency or nationally accredited module in a VET qualification at AQF Certificate II or above.
    • The specification of the successful completion of a unit of competency/module is a marker for genuine participation in a VET course. It is not intended as a measure of attainment. AQF Certificate II is regarded as entry level training for employment.
    • From January 2014, all registered training organisations (RTOs), including private providers, were required to collect and report full Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard (AVETMISS) data on all nationally accredited training. This represents a break in the series.
    • From January 2015, VET students have been allocated a Unique Student Identifier (USI). From 2015 onwards, NCVER has applied a de-duplication process, using the USI, to better estimate the counts of students participating in VET activity. This change constitutes another break in the time series between 2014 and 2015. Data from 2015 is consistent year-on-year. For further information, please refer to Counting Students in Total VET students and courses.
    • 'Major course' relates to the highest qualification attempted by a student in the reporting year.
    • 'State/territory' excludes 'Multiples states', 'Overseas' and unknown values. Similarly, 'Sex' and 'Geolocation' exclude unknown values. Therefore, disaggregated values may not sum to the totals.
    • For 'Language background', unknown values are included in 'English'. Similarly, unknown 'Indigenous status' values are included in 'Non-Indigenous' as the largest category.
    • In 2014-2016 the sum of individual states and territories does not equal the Australian total as there is some activity that was reported with state or territory of delivery 'unknown' as well as instances where a student received training in more than one state or territory.
    • In 2018, there was a much higher than usual proportion of unknown values for sex, language background, Indigenous status and geolocation in Western Australia's participation and completions data. This affects data for these categories for Western Australia and Australia.
    • In 2018, there was a higher than usual proportion of unknown values for Sex and Geolocation in Victoria's completions data. 
    • VET program measure 1
      Occupation and industry profile of VET engagement for 15–19-year-olds who in the calendar year, successfully completed at least one unit of competency or accredited module as a part of a VET qualification at AQF Certificate II or above
    • Three measures of VET program measure 1 are provided: participation by field of education; participation by occupation group; participation by Skills Service Organisation.
    • Further information about Skills Service Organisations can be found here: Industry Reference Committees (IRCs) and Skills Service Organisations (SSOs) fact sheet.
    • VET program measure 2
      Level of AQF certification for 15–19-year-olds who in the calendar year successfully completed a VET qualification
    • One measure of VET program measure 2 is provided: qualification completions by qualification level of major course.

 

This information relates to Part 3 of the National Report on Schooling in Australia.

Sources: NCVER, National VET in Schools Collection 2009–21; NCVER, National VET Provider Collection 2009–21; ABS, National, state and territory population June 2021 (release date 28/06/2022, based on the 2021 Census of Population and Housing).


User guide

Please refer to the user guide for information on how to use the data portal.

 

icon image