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TAFE loses ground in post-school landscape Victorian school leavers are changing their preferences for TAFE courses in relation to other education and training destinations, according to a paper presented to a recent conference on the economics of education. Dr Phillip McKenzie, ACER Research Director, Transitions and Policy Analysis, and Dr Sheldon Rothman, ACER Principal Research Fellow, Program Analysis, used information from the Victorian Government’s On Track annual survey of school leavers to show how vocational education and training (VET) fits into the post-school landscape. “TAFE has declined in relative importance as a destination for Victorian Year 12 completers between 2003 and 2010,” Dr McKenzie said. “However, TAFE is showing renewed take-up by early school leavers, particularly in programs for lower-level certificates.” The proportion of Victorian school completers enrolled in a TAFE course in the year after leaving school declined from 27 per cent in 2003 to 18 per cent in 2008, and has remained steady since then. The proportion of early school leavers enrolled in a TAFE course in the year after leaving school has increased over the past two years to 21 per cent, following a decline from 23 per cent in 2003 to 15 per cent in 2006, where it plateaued until 2008. Apprenticeships and traineeships increased as a destination for Victorian school completers between 2003 and 2010 and remained largely steady for early leavers. Among school completers, university has increased in importance as a destination in the year following school. “The net effect is that VET enrolled smaller proportions of both school completers and early leavers in 2010 than in 2003,” Dr McKenzie said. “However, VET still remains a very significant sector, attracting about 25 per cent of school completers and 50 per cent of early leavers in 2010.” Dr McKenzie explained that these changes in post-school destinations are occurring within the context of rising school completion rates and the diversification of the school study experience. “Of all those people that are leaving school in Victoria, a higher proportion of them have finished Year 12 or equivalent,” Dr McKenzie said, referring to those who graduate with either the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), with or without a VET component, or with the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL). In 2003, only one in seven students chose not to study ‘straight VCE’, or VCE without a VET component. Since then participation in VCE with VET has been growing by about 1.5 percentage points per year and participation in VCAL has been growing by about one percentage point per year. Consequently, now one in three students is not studying straight VCE. “VET is far from losing its attractiveness,” Dr McKenzie said, “however its comparative position in the post school education and training landscape has changed.” Between 2003 and 2010, almost 310 000 young people participated in the On Track surveys. ACER has been contracted since 2008 by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development for the overall management, design, analysis and reporting. The 2010 Annual Conference of the Monash University-ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET), ‘Education and training for a more productive Australia’, was held in Melbourne on Friday 29 October at Ascot House, 50 Fenton St, Ascot Vale. The presentations are available from the CEET website « Back to eNews
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Victorian school leavers are changing their preferences for TAFE courses in relation to other education and training destinations, according to a paper presented to a recent conference on the economics of education.

Dr Phillip McKenzie, ACER Research Director, Transitions and Policy Analysis, and Dr Sheldon Rothman, ACER Principal Research Fellow, Program Analysis, used information from the Victorian Government’s On Track annual survey of school leavers to show how vocational education and training (VET) fits into the post-school landscape.

“TAFE has declined in relative importance as a destination for Victorian Year 12 completers between 2003 and 2010,” Dr McKenzie said. “However, TAFE is showing renewed take-up by early school leavers, particularly in programs for lower-level certificates.”

The proportion of Victorian school completers enrolled in a TAFE course in the year after leaving school declined from 27 per cent in 2003 to 18 per cent in 2008, and has remained steady since then.

The proportion of early school leavers enrolled in a TAFE course in the year after leaving school has increased over the past two years to 21 per cent, following a decline from 23 per cent in 2003 to 15 per cent in 2006, where it plateaued until 2008.

Apprenticeships and traineeships increased as a destination for Victorian school completers between 2003 and 2010 and remained largely steady for early leavers. Among school completers, university has increased in importance as a destination in the year following school.

“The net effect is that VET enrolled smaller proportions of both school completers and early leavers in 2010 than in 2003,” Dr McKenzie said. “However, VET still remains a very significant sector, attracting about 25 per cent of school completers and 50 per cent of early leavers in 2010.”

Dr McKenzie explained that these changes in post-school destinations are occurring within the context of rising school completion rates and the diversification of the school study experience.

“Of all those people that are leaving school in Victoria, a higher proportion of them have finished Year 12 or equivalent,” Dr McKenzie said, referring to those who graduate with either the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), with or without a VET component, or with the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL).

In 2003, only one in seven students chose not to study ‘straight VCE’, or VCE without a VET component. Since then participation in VCE with VET has been growing by about 1.5 percentage points per year and participation in VCAL has been growing by about one percentage point per year. Consequently, now one in three students is not studying straight VCE.

“VET is far from losing its attractiveness,” Dr McKenzie said, “however its comparative position in the post school education and training landscape has changed.”

Between 2003 and 2010, almost 310 000 young people participated in the On Track surveys. ACER has been contracted since 2008 by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development for the overall management, design, analysis and reporting.

The 2010 Annual Conference of the Monash University-ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET), ‘Education and training for a more productive Australia’, was held in Melbourne on Friday 29 October at Ascot House, 50 Fenton St, Ascot Vale. The presentations are available from the CEET website

TAFE loses ground in post-school landscape