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).

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
	Males	Females	Persons(b)
Age group (years)	'000	'000	'000
19 or under	244.1	194.3	438.7
20-24	163.2	113.7	277.1
25-29	89.9	72.2	162.1
30-39	150.2	140.4	290.8
40-49	115.7	141.3	257.3
50-59	70.0	80.7	150.9
60 and over	27.5	29.0	56.6
Not stated	17.7	24.0	42.5
Total	878.2	795.7	1 676.0
(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
	Males	Females	Persons(b)
Field of education	'000	'000	'000
Natural and physical sciences	3	4	7
Information technology	45	25	71
Engineering and related technologies	306	35	341
Architecture and building	121	10	131
Agriculture, environmental and related studies	71	23	94
Health	50	58	109
Education	23	33	56
Management and commerce	142	256	399
Society and culture	55	150	205
Creative arts	21	31	52
Food, hospitality and personal services	79	121	200
Mixed field programmes	147	178	326
Total enrolments	1 063	925	1 989
(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
		Males	Females	Persons
Occupation(a)		'000	'000	'000
Managers and administrators		2.0	0.9	2.9
Professionals		2.6	1.8	4.4
Associate professionals		14.5	15.4	30.0
Tradespersons and related workers
	Mechanical and fabrication engineering	23.4	0.4	23.8
	Automotive	27.3	0.6	27.9
	Electrical and electronics	29.1	0.4	29.6
	Construction	47.5	0.5	48.0
	Food	16.5	6.3	22.8
	Skilled agricultural and horticultural workers	4.8	0.7	5.4
	Other tradespersons and related workers	10.4	12.8	23.3
	Tradespersons and related workers n.e.c.	0.4	0.1	0.5
	Total	159.5	21.8	181.2
Advanced clerical and service workers		2.0	5.1	7.0
Intermediate clerical, sales and service workers		26.8	62.4	89.2
Intermediate production and transport workers		33.3	5.4	38.7
Elementary clerical, sales and service workers		7.4	12.5	19.8
Labourers and related workers		17.1	7.1	24.2
Total		265.1	132.3	397.4
(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
	Full-time staff(b)	Part-time staff	All teaching staff
	'000	'000	'000
Males	14.9	3.7	18.6
Females	7.4	6.5	13.9
Persons	22.3	10.2	32.5
(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.

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