Who studied what government-funded VET in 2024?
The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) has just published the 2024 data on government-funded VET activity.
They also published this useful summary of what the enrolment data shows – it highlights that while there were more government-funded students in VET in 2024 than in 2019 – in the last year there has been a decline (-2.7%) in government-funded students in VET. This is likely to be of concern to governments given the National Skills Agreement came into effect on 1 January 2024 and saw significant extra funding injected into the system.
The NCVER also provides this useful graphic showing that the annual decline in government-funded VET students is not uniform across the country. There were increases in Western Australia (5.2%), Queensland (2.6%) and Victoria (0.9%), and declines in all other jurisdictions.
Note that the decline in students between 2023 and 2024 for NSW may be greater than -9.5%, as the NCVER includes a caveat on the NSW data which is reproduced at the end of this post.
Looked at by state/territory and major provider type, the data shows that there have been noticeable cuts to government-funded students enrolling with private providers in New South Wales, the ACT, Northern Territory and Tasmania, and to ACE providers in all jurisdictions with recognised community education providers except Victoria.
Government-funded VET students by provider-type and jurisdiction (2023-2024)
Looking across the states and territories at qualification enrolments in the Top 10 most popular training packages for government-funded students, and again there are some differences.
Nationally there has been a decline in government-funded enrolments in:
- Tourism and Hospitality in all jurisdictions
- Agriculture in all jurisdictions except the Northern Territory
- Business Services in all jurisdictions except Victoria, and
- ICT in all jurisdictions except Western Australia.
The training package (amongst the Top 10) with the most consistent growth in enrolments is Automotive Retail which has seen increasing students enrol everywhere except the ACT.
The priority industry sectors of Community Services, Construction and Plumbing, and Health had mixed enrolment patterns, with a surprising number of states and territories having fewer students enrolled in courses for these industries in 2024 than in the preceding year.
Government-funded VET students by Top 10 training package and jurisdiction (2023-2024)
Even more concerning for governments will be the slowing of new students entering government-funded VET. The data shows a decline nationally in students who are described as ‘new to VET’ (ie commencing students) in 2024, and the same trend was evident across all jurisdictions.
Government-funded students ‘new to VET’ by jurisdiction (2023-2024)
It does appear though that Fee Free TAFE and VET, as well as other government-subsidised VET programs, are increasingly attracting students with very, very low levels of prior educational attainment, although overall numbers in these categories (‘did not go to school’, ‘Year 9 or lower’, Certificate I) are quite low. There are higher numbers of students starting government-funded VET programs who already hold university degrees, associate degrees and advanced diplomas (albeit enrolments are slowing for these and other students with high levels of prior educational attainment).
Government-funded students ‘new to VET’ by prior educational attainment (2023-2024)
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Caveat on NSW data
