Australian vocational education and training (VET) graduates who study with not-for-profit community education providers continue to top the national figures in their move from unemployment to employment.
The latest figures, released by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) in the VET Student Outcomes 2019 report (December 2019), show that the increase in employment of community education VET graduates was the highest of any provider type: 16.8% of community education VET training graduates moved from unemployment to employment as a result of their training, compared to 10.1% of TAFE graduates (also the national average), 9.5% of private for-profit training providers, and 7.9% of university VET providers; see Table 1 below.
While only 53.6% of community education students were employed at the commencement of tr4aining, this figure increased to 70.4% as a result of the training. Students of all other provider types had much higher employment commencement numbers, but substantially less moves into employment.
“The employment increase of community education VET graduates is again outstanding, consistent with previous years figures. Given that many of our students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, they use our sector’s training to move into employment,” said Dr Don Perlgut, CEO of Community Colleges Australia.
| Table 1: VET Graduate change in employment due to training participation by provider type, 2019 | |||||
|
TAFE institutes (%) |
Universities (%) | Community education providers (%) | Private training providers (%) | All students (%) | |
| Employed before training | 61.2 | 65.4 | 53.6 | 70.8 | 66.7 |
| Employed after training | 71.3 | 73.3 | 70.4 | 80.3 | 76.6 |
| Increase in employment due to training | 10.1 | 7.9 | 16.8 | 9.5 | 10.1 |
Source: NCVER, VET Student Outcomes 2019 report, December 2019, Table 18, p. 25.
Compared to other VET provider types, community education graduates were also the most satisfied with assessment, the most satisfied with the overall quality of training and the most willing to recommend their training. Of those employed after training, more community education graduates found the training relevant to their current job and received at least one job-related benefit; see Table 2 below.
| Table 2: VET graduate Satisfaction with and relevance of training by provider type, 2019 | |||||
| TAFE institutes (%) | Universities (%) | Community education providers (%) | Private training providers (%) | All students (%) | |
| Satisfied with assessment | 88.9 | 86.3 | 90.4 | 89.4 | 89.2 |
| Satisfied with the overall quality of training | 88.3 | 86.9 | 89.4 | 88.0 | 88.1 |
| Recommend training | 90.8 | 88.8 | 91.7 | 90.5 | 90.6 |
| Of those employed after training: | |||||
| Found the training relevant to their current job | 79.3 | 73.0 | 83.2 | 81.3 | 80.5 |
| Received at least one job-related benefit | 83.5 | 79.9 | 87.5 | 84.2 | 84.0 |
Source: NCVER, VET Student Outcomes 2019 report, December 2019, Table 18, p. 25.
The data in the NCVER report is based on 5,957 community education graduates and 4,613 subject completers.
