VET numbers on the rise, recover from Covid slump – NCVER

The number of students enrolled in nationally recognised vocational education and training (VET) courses increased by 5.1 percent to 4.5 million between 2021 and 202, according to the latest data from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER).

Most of the increase can be attributed to significant rises in domestic and international fee-for-service subject enrolments not delivered as part of nationally recognised programmes, especially in health-related fields of education.

NCVER’s Total VET students and courses 2022 report found that 25.0 percent of Australian residents aged 15 to 64 participated in nationally recognised VET in 2022, up from 24.0 percent in 2021. The highest participation group was Australian residents aged 15 to 19 at 45.7 percent.

Between 2021 and 2022, the number of students enrolled in nationally recognised programmes decreased by 1.3 percent to 2.1 million, while the number of students enrolled in subjects not delivered as part of a nationally recognised programme increased by 10.4 percent to 3.0 million.

The most popular field of education for those subjects was health, which made up 67.6 percent of all subjects not delivered as part of a nationally recognised programme.

In 2022, both domestic and international fee-for-service numbers increased. Domestic numbers increased by 8.7 percent to 3.4 million, while international numbers increased by 6.2 percent to 226,675.

Government-funded students decreased by 5.2 percent to 1.3 million.

Overall student numbers have increased 11.3 percent between 2018 and 2022, except for 2020 which saw numbers decline following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Picture: NCVER