VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (VET)
There are over 4,400 registered training organisations in Australia. While there are around 3,100 private training providers of VET, most VET students are engaged with publicly-funded training providers. These are predominately government-administered TAFE colleges or institutes. Other publicly-funded VET can be provided by higher education institutions, secondary schools and colleges, agricultural and technical colleges, and adult and community organisations. Private providers of VET can include private training organisations, business colleges, industry associations, adult and community organisations and employers.
VET providers offer a wide range of subjects and programs including traditional trades, advanced technical training, para-professional and professional studies as well as basic employment and educational preparation. While formal VET study provides skills and nationally recognised qualifications for employment, students may complete only one or two subjects to gain specific skills, without completing a full qualification, if that is their choice.
Students and courses
Overall, the number of students in publicly-funded VET in 2006 has declined by 2% since 2000. This reflects a decrease in female student numbers of 5%, compared with a 2% increase in male student numbers over the period. More recently, overall student numbers increased by 2% between 2005 and 2006 (graph 12.12).
12.12 VET students(a)
![Graph: 12.12 VET students(a)](/ausstats/ABS@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/c280d93d00f45e46ca2573d200107d9b/Body/0.858!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif)
During 2006, there were 1.7 million students enrolled in a publicly-funded VET course, comprising 878,200 males and 795,700 females (table 12.13). Enrolments by males aged 19 years or younger increased by 11%, and females by 12%, between 2005 and 2006. Enrolments by females in all other age groups decreased, as did enrolments by males aged 30 years or older. Where the majority (57%) of male students were aged less than 30 years, 48% of female students were aged less than 30 years in 2006.
12.13 VET STUDENTS(a), Vocational and preparatory courses - 2006 |
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![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Males | Females | Persons(b) | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Age group (years) | '000 | '000 | '000 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
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19 or under | 244.1 | 194.3 | 438.7 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
20-24 | 163.2 | 113.7 | 277.1 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
25-29 | 89.9 | 72.2 | 162.1 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
30-39 | 150.2 | 140.4 | 290.8 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
40-49 | 115.7 | 141.3 | 257.3 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
50-59 | 70.0 | 80.7 | 150.9 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
60 and over | 27.5 | 29.0 | 56.6 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Not stated | 17.7 | 24.0 | 42.5 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Total | 878.2 | 795.7 | 1 676.0 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
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(a) Includes all VET delivery by TAFE and other government providers, multi-sector higher education institutions, registered community providers and publicly-funded delivery by private providers. Fee-for-service VET delivery by private providers has been excluded. School students undertaking VET in schools have also been excluded. A student is an individual who was enrolled in a subject or completed a qualification at any time in 2006. |
(b) Includes 'sex not stated'. |
Source: National Centre for Vocational Education Research, data available on request, VET Provider Collection. |
VET courses are classified according to specific fields of education on the basis of similar emphasis or subject matter orientation. Table 12.14 shows the number of course enrolments in 2006 in 12 fields of education. Since students may be enrolled in more than one VET course, the number of course enrolments is greater than the total number of students. In 2006, there were 2 million course enrolments compared with 1.7 million students.
Some 20% of enrolments in VET courses in 2006 were in the Management and commerce field, while 17% were in Engineering and related technologies. A further 16% of enrolments were in Mixed field programmes.
Enrolments by males dominated the fields of Architecture and building (92%); Engineering and related technologies (90%); Agriculture, environmental and related studies (76%); and Information technology (64%). In contrast, females were in the majority in the fields of Society and culture (73%); Management and commerce (64%); Food, hospitality and personal services (61%); Creative arts (59%); Natural and physical sciences (59%); and Education (58%).
12.14 VET COURSE ENROLMENTS(a), Vocational and preparatory courses - 2006 |
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![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Males | Females | Persons(b) | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Field of education | '000 | '000 | '000 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
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Natural and physical sciences | 3 | 4 | 7 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Information technology | 45 | 25 | 71 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Engineering and related technologies | 306 | 35 | 341 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Architecture and building | 121 | 10 | 131 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Agriculture, environmental and related studies | 71 | 23 | 94 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Health | 50 | 58 | 109 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Education | 23 | 33 | 56 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Management and commerce | 142 | 256 | 399 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Society and culture | 55 | 150 | 205 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Creative arts | 21 | 31 | 52 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Food, hospitality and personal services | 79 | 121 | 200 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Mixed field programmes | 147 | 178 | 326 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Total enrolments | 1 063 | 925 | 1 989 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
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(a) Includes all VET delivery by TAFE and other government providers, multi-sector higher education institutions, registered community providers, and publicly-funded delivery by private providers. Fee-for-service VET delivery by private providers has been excluded. School students undertaking VET in schools have also been excluded. |
(b) Includes 'sex not stated'. |
Source: National Centre for Vocational Education Research, data available on request, VET Provider Collection. |
Apprenticeships and traineeships
Of the 397,400 apprentices and trainees in-training at 31 December 2006, about two-thirds were males (67%). Some 46% of all apprentices and trainees were in the Tradespersons and related workers (trades) occupational group. Within this occupation group, over half of the apprentices and trainees were in Construction (27%), Electrical and electronics (16%), and the Automotive (15%), sub-groups. Females in these three sub-groups represented only 1% of all female apprentices and trainees in 2006 (table 12.15).
Most of the trades apprentices and trainees in 2006 were male (88%). Construction apprentices and trainees, notably comprised 99% males. In contrast to trades apprentices and trainees, the proportion of males among the 216,200 non-trades apprentices and trainees was similar to that of females (49% males and 51% females).
The number of trades apprentices and trainees increased by 4% between 2005 and 2006, greater than the 0.6% increase across all occupational groups. Over the same period, apprentices and trainees in the non-trades groups fell 1.8%.
12.15 APPRENTICES AND TRAINEES, In-training - 31 December 2006 |
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![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Males | Females | Persons | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Occupation(a) | '000 | '000 | '000 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
| ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Managers and administrators | 2.0 | 0.9 | 2.9 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Professionals | 2.6 | 1.8 | 4.4 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Associate professionals | 14.5 | 15.4 | 30.0 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Tradespersons and related workers | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Mechanical and fabrication engineering | 23.4 | 0.4 | 23.8 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Automotive | 27.3 | 0.6 | 27.9 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Electrical and electronics | 29.1 | 0.4 | 29.6 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Construction | 47.5 | 0.5 | 48.0 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Food | 16.5 | 6.3 | 22.8 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Skilled agricultural and horticultural workers | 4.8 | 0.7 | 5.4 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Other tradespersons and related workers | 10.4 | 12.8 | 23.3 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Tradespersons and related workers n.e.c. | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.5 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Total | 159.5 | 21.8 | 181.2 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Advanced clerical and service workers | 2.0 | 5.1 | 7.0 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Intermediate clerical, sales and service workers | 26.8 | 62.4 | 89.2 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Intermediate production and transport workers | 33.3 | 5.4 | 38.7 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Elementary clerical, sales and service workers | 7.4 | 12.5 | 19.8 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Labourers and related workers | 17.1 | 7.1 | 24.2 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Total | 265.1 | 132.3 | 397.4 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
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(a) Classified according to the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO), Second Edition, 1997. |
Source: National Centre for Vocational Education Research, data available on request, National Apprentice and Trainee collection. |
Staff
Table 12.16 shows estimates of the number of teachers working in TAFE and other VET institutes in 2006-07. Of all VET teachers, 69% were employed full time. The majority of full-time VET teachers were male (67%). In contrast, 64% of part-time VET teachers were female.
12.16 VET TEACHING STAFF(a) - 2006-07 |
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![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | Full-time staff(b) | Part-time staff | All teaching staff | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
![](/icons/ecblank.gif) | '000 | '000 | '000 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
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Males | 14.9 | 3.7 | 18.6 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Females | 7.4 | 6.5 | 13.9 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Persons | 22.3 | 10.2 | 32.5 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
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(a) Annual average of quarterly data. |
(b) Refers to persons working 35 hours or more in a week. |
Source: Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly (6291.0.55.003). |
Training courses
According to the 2005 ABS Survey of Education and Training, 5.3 million people aged 15-69 years (54% of whom were male), completed one or more work-related training courses. Of the 11.2 million work-related training courses completed by these people, 30% were in the Management and professional field. Other commonly reported fields of training were Health and safety (21%), and Technical and para-professional (14%). Graph 12.17 shows the fields of work-related training courses completed by males and females in 2005.
12.17 Work-related training courses completed(a), field of training
- 2005
![Graph: 12.17 Work-related training courses completed(a), ^field of training—2005](/ausstats/ABS@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/c280d93d00f45e46ca2573d200107d9b/Body/0.8622!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif)