Australia’s largest survey of vocational education and training (VET) students has today revealed that graduate satisfaction with overall training quality remains high at 87.3%, up 1.3 percentage points from 2016.

The annual National Student Outcomes Survey, managed by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), provides information on student employment outcomes as well as training satisfaction and relevance.

“The survey has expanded again in 2017 and we are grateful to have received responses from around 150 000 students,” said Dr Craig Fowler, Managing Director, NCVER.

This year’s survey report includes data on students who completed their training in the Australian VET system during 2016, with the data collected in mid-2017.

The new data show that 77.7% of graduates were employed after training and that 86.1% of graduates were either employed or enrolled in further study after training.

Further, 47.1% of graduates who weren’t employed before training were employed after, similar to 2016. Of those who were employed before training, 17.1% were employed at a higher skill level after graduating, up 1.7 percentage points from 2016.

“We’ve also gathered more data this year on why some students complete subjects only, rather than full qualifications,” Dr Fowler said.

“This gives us a better understanding of the potential barriers to completion, and a more comprehensive picture of how and why students choose to use and benefit from the VET system.”

In 2017, 24.9% of subject completers did not continue training for training-related reasons, 21.6% due to changes in their job situation and 21.2% for personal reasons. A further 20.6% did not continue because they got what they wanted from their training.

Also 90.1% of subject completers were satisfied with training quality and 84.2% were employed after training.

To download VET Student Outcomes 2017, or for more information about the survey including outcomes by provider type, visit https://www.ncver.edu.au/data/collection/student-outcomes

The National Student Outcomes Survey is conducted annually on behalf of the Australian, state and territory governments and includes students who completed a qualification or subject with a VET provider in the previous calendar year.