Employment outcomes improve for VET graduates

Two-thirds of students who completed a vocational qualification at certificate I or above had an improved employment outcome post-training, up 2.6 percentage points from the previous year.

The report, VET student outcomes 2023, released today by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) shows:

50.6 percent of graduates who did not have a job before training were employed after training 37.8 percent of graduates who had a job before training were in a better job after training.

The results come from the 2023 National Student Outcomes Survey, which measures the outcomes and satisfaction of students who completed nationally recognised VET delivered by registered training organisations (RTOs) in Australia during 2022 using data collected in mid-2023.

In 2023, 79.5 percent of graduates were employed after training, the highest level seen since the survey was expanded in 2016 to cover all nationally recognised training.

This supports the findings by Jobs and Skills Australia that just over 60.0 percent of total employment growth in 2022 was in occupations where VET qualifications are the primary pathway.

NCVER Managing Director Simon Walker said: “The results from this year’s survey show that the majority of graduates employed after training received some form of job-related benefit from their training, with many graduates gaining extra skills, getting a new job or changing jobs.”

Just under a third (29.8 percent) of VET graduates were employed after training in the same occupation as their qualification.

A further 28.9 percent were employed in a different occupation but found the training relevant to their current job.

Satisfaction with training was also high, with 89.0 percent of graduates satisfied with the training overall and 84.6 percent recommending their training provider.

Image: NCVER/Job-related benefits of undertaking training, for qualification completers and part-completers, 2023 (%, may be over 100% as muktiple selections allowed)