Serious decline in government funded VET activity

Data released by the NCVER shows a 6% decline in government funded students in VET in the last four years.

However that headline figure masks a sharper decline in most jurisdictions. Both NSW and the ACT had increasing numbers of government funded students between 2015 and 2018. Given the size of NSW it has a significant impact on the national picture. If the NSW figures are excluded from the national total – there has been an 18% decline in government funded students.

I’ve also analysed the shifts in the types of providers different governments have funded. Note that I have focussed on TAFEs and other government providers, and those I’ve labelled private but which in the NCVER data includes very small numbers studying at enterprise RTOs and the like.

Note – in the above table government-funded students enrolled with ACE providers or in multiple providers in the one year are included in the ‘total’ figures but are not shown separately due to the relatively small size of these cohorts.