Vocational education and training - VET

Research messages is a summary of research produced by NCVER each year. This year’s compilation includes a range of research activities undertaken during 2023, comprising of research reports, summaries, occasional papers, presentations, webinars, consultancies, submissions, the 32nd ‘No Frills’ national research conference, and various additions to VOCEDplus knowledge resources.

Vocational education and training (VET) is an important part of education systems around the world. VET systems differ widely between countries in how programmes are designed and delivered. Moreover, countries differ in terms of the types of providers that deliver VET. This report looks at the VET provider landscape in Australia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. It provides insights into the number of different providers by country, their focus areas and target populations. It describes how providers are different and how they overlap, as well as structures and initiatives to foster co-ordination between them.

This interactive publication contributes to the growing body of work investigating online and blended training delivery in vocational education and training (VET). It presents the delivery mode of subject-level enrolments in VET for 2019 (pre-pandemic), 2020 and 2021. The aim is to examine whether, and how, training delivery has changed during the pandemic. In addition to overall subject-level enrolment figures, the publication presents delivery mode by jurisdiction, funding source, training provider type, Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) level and student remoteness.

Investing in Australians’ education is far more important than immigration in resolving the nation’s skills shortages, according to leading economists surveyed in the lead-up to this week’s jobs and skills summit.

Access to digital technology has demonstrated the ability to change learning in the workplace with easily available resources and flexibility through often self-paced learning environments, offering employees the ability to take control of their learning experiences. The scarce existing body of research suggests that “specialised” MOOCs may be an effective means of upskilling the workforce. Whilst MOOCs offer a convenient, scalable and cost-effective means for businesses looking to increase or update skills within their workforce, much uncertainty still exists about both Australian employers’ and employee perceptions and attitudes towards the use of MOOCs as a way of addressing the skills gaps. The aim of this study was to explore the potential for MOOCs in addressing the skills gaps in the Australian workforce through a systematic qualitative review of the literature. In total, 19 research and media articles were reviewed. Three major themes emerged: MOOCs and flexibility for learning, MOOCs for on-demand, lifelong learning in a rapidly changing workplace, and credentialing of MOOCs towards a formal qualification. This study aims to contribute to this growing area of research by exploring the extent to which MOOCs might help address skills shortages and upskill employees in an Australian context.

This technical paper summarises the exploratory quantitative analysis undertaken to investigate how vocational education and training (VET) students cluster and segment in the Australian VET market. The paper outlines the clustering algorithms used and provides insights into the identified market segments, with case studies used to explore key segments (students in targeted English programs; students in social inclusion programs; and migrant students) in more detail.

There is renewed interest in better aligning vocational education and training (VET) and higher education (HE). This report explores the characteristics and sustainability of different models of highly integrated VET and HE qualifications. The research finds that highly integrated arrangements are difficult and expensive to develop, and often difficult to sustain. These models may be more widespread and sustainable, however, if providers are supported with the expertise and resources to undertake mapping processes, where providers and their staff in the two sectors trust and value each other, where employers value both VET and HE, and students find demands associated with integrated offerings acceptable.

Using data from the Survey of Employer Use and Views of the VET System and other complementary sources, this report examines how employers have fared due to the COVID-19 pandemic and what this has meant for their current and future training requirements.

This report investigates skill underutilisation in Australian workers by examining patterns of over-skilling and over-qualification and the pathways of people into jobs where they are over-skilled. It also examines what businesses are doing, if anything, to maximise skill usage. The research finds that around 19% of workers report that they are not using all their skills at work. Around 35% of workers are over-qualified, potentially contributing to this level of skill underutilisation. It also finds that while employers value the concept of skills usage, there are higher priorities, such as skills development.

This publication reviews the current trends in how workplace-based delivery of training is distributed, including where entire programs are delivered in this way. Additionally, data from the Student Outcomes Survey was used to model the effect of a student receiving workplace-based delivery on employment and achievement outcomes.

This study investigates the models used to deliver VET to secondary students across and within jurisdictions and public and private school sectors, and reports on findings from surveys of students and parents about their motivations and aspirations.

This paper provides a broad, thematic overview of the Australian VET workforce from the Tregillis report in 1969 to the present. It draws on the landmark documents and refers also to others3 that, while not classified as landmark, have nevertheless helped to provide further perspectives on the VET workforce in the years since then. Following a summary of the key focus and significance of each of the four landmark reports, the paper analyses some potential reasons for the relative dearth of information about the VET workforce, and then concentrates on three main questions that arise from these reasons: what is known about the VET workforce, what capabilities does it require to carry out its roles effectively, and how can it be most appropriately prepared and developed?

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI), while creating new possibilities for learning and teaching, has exacerbated existing assessment challenges within higher education. However, there is considerable expertise, based on evidence, theory and practice, about how to design assessment for a digital world, which includes artificial intelligence. AI is not new, after all, even if the current iterations of generative AI are. This document, constructed through expert collaboration, draws on this body of knowledge and outlines directions for the future of assessment. It seeks to provide guidance for the sector on ways assessment practices can take advantage of the opportunities, and manage the risks, of AI, specifically generative AI.

Competency-based training (CBT) has been fundamental to how accredited VET is delivered in Australia for the last three decades or so and over this time it has garnered both advocates and critics. This research examines the strengths and weaknesses of CBT as it is currently applied to the Australian VET system and whether there is cause to consider a broader approach to defining and describing competence and hence considering how best teaching and learning in VET is delivered and assessed.

Our latest research reveals that VET qualifications enable graduates to be more job ready compared to higher education qualifications. 

This report explores occupations that can be entered into via either a vocational education and training (VET) pathway or a higher education pathway. It examines whether these individuals do the same job tasks and roles, if there are differences in how well the qualifications prepare them for the role and whether they have the same occupation and employment outcomes, such as salary and career pathways.

Australian vocational education and training (VET) policy makers have persistently proposed more user choice when reforming the national training system. Increasing alternatives by encouraging multiple providers to trade in regulated contestable markets remains the cornerstone of governments’ policies. However, despite policy intentions, students’ options are declining. Longitudinal quantitative jurisdiction-level statistics identify well-established trends of a reduced variety of providers, a smaller range of qualifications on offer and decreased public funding.

The coronavirus pandemic created unprecedented challenges for the vocational education and training (VET) sector. This report, the second of two, presents insights into the experiences of registered training organisations (RTOs) that transitioned to online delivery in response to the pandemic and describes how their experiences may shape their intentions to deliver VET online in the future. These insights have been informed by a survey of RTOs, administered in collaboration with the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), and through a series of semi-structured interviews with the case study RTOs.

VET (vocational education and training) is a highly complex, multidimensional worldwide phenomenon with diverse structures. Additionally, very different actors define the functions of a national (or even a regional) VET system. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the policy frameworks and current states of such systems. Therefore, we focus on selected VET systems in order to understand their specifics and thus, their market conditions. A qualitative approach is used to answer the research question regarding which conditions create or support market-based opportunities for the provision of commercial vocational training services. We find that the liberalism and deregulation of the VET sectors, as well as the marketisation of VET practices, lead to incentives to internationalise VET offers. Thinking in terms of skills, the kind of education system does not play a role. This is the case in liberal market-driven VET approaches (here, the UK, the USA and Australia) and is mirrored in the micro-analysis categories of curricula, learning location, content, and learning process.

There is general consensus that the Australian VET sector faces a number of workforce issues including the aging of VET teachers, the high level of casualisation, industry currency and the need to increase the capacity of trainers. An underutilised resource that could contribute to the availability of VET practitioners might be industry experts who are highly knowledgeable and experienced in their sector. Through interviews and surveys with registered training organisations and current VET practitioners, this research sought to better understand how training organisations recruit and retain industry experts.

This product provides a summary of employers’ use and views of the vocational education and training (VET) system and focuses on employer engagement and satisfaction with both accredited and unaccredited training.

Amongst the body of national reports and policy statements classified as landmark documents on vocational education and training (VET) in Australia, research is the focus of only five. Given the documents cover a period from 1954 to 2010, clearly VET research has struggled to gain and retain a place on the VET agenda. The value of these five documents, however, should not be discounted for they raised the profile of research and consistently highlighted the challenges research has faced. Nor should the wisdom they contain be ignored as the relevance of their findings remain true for VET now and the future.