Australia’s Adult and Community Education Sector in Perspective
According to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), at the end of 2016 there were 426 community education training providers in Australia. Of these community providers, 268 were Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) and 158 were non-registered – all of this latter group located in Victoria.
Of the 4.2 million students enrolled in Australian vocational education and training (VET) in 2016, 378,900 (9% of the total) studied with a community provider.
In addition to community providers, Australian VET students enrolled in TAFE (739,800 students, representing 17.6% of the total); university providers (60,200 students, 1.4%); school providers (91,300 students, 2.2%); enterprise providers (85,000 students, 2%); and private for-profit providers (2,470,800 students, 58.7%); with 381,600 people (9.1%) attending more than one provider type.
In addition to the 426 adult and community education (ACE) formal training providers, there are at least 2000 other ACE providers in Australia, delivering personal interest learning and other courses (see Adult Learning Australia, Australia ACE Environmental Scan Research Project 2016).