Report on Government Services 2024

The VET system provides training for entry level jobs through to highly technical occupations, but also provides training for non-employment related reasons. Nationally in 2023, the main reason qualification completers participated in VET was for:

• employment related reasons (75.1% in total VET and 76.1% in government-funded VET)¹
• personal development (13.2% in total VET and 12.0% in government-funded VET)
• pathways to further study (11.7% in total VET and 11.9% in government-funded VET) (NCVER 2023).

To achieve these aims, a student may choose to complete a single subject/unit of competency, module, skill set or VET qualification. VET qualifications range from Certificate level I to Graduate Diploma level, as determined by the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).

1. Total VET refers to nationally recognised vocational education and training activity delivered by Australian registered training organisations (RTOs) to students who undertook nationally recognised VET on a government funded or fee-for-service basis. All data for non-nationally recognised training and delivery from non-registered training providers has been excluded from reporting of total VET activity in this report. Locate Footnote 1 above

VET is an area of shared responsibility between interlinked government, industry and individual stakeholders (figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1 VET roles and responsibilities

Federal governance arrangements

For the reporting period 2022/2022-23, government roles and responsibilities were outlined in the National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development , and are summarised below:

• The Australian Government provides financial support to state and territory governments to sustain national training systems and provides specific incentives, interventions and assistance for national priority areas.
• State and territory governments manage VET delivery within their jurisdiction (including the effective operation of the training market).
• The Australian Government and state and territory governments work together to progress and implement national policy priorities. Up to May 2020, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Industry and Skills Council had responsibility for skills development and national training arrangements. In May 2020, COAG was replaced by a new architecture for federal relations. The National Cabinet announced the formation of six National Cabinet Reform Committees, including the Skills National Cabinet Reform Committee (Skills Committee). In late 2022, following a Review of Ministerial Councils conducted by First Secretaries, National Cabinet renamed the Committee the Skills and Workforce Ministerial Council, acknowledging the strong linkages between skills and workforce policy matters.

The Skills and Workforce Ministerial Council was established to support the ongoing reforms to vocational education and training outlined in the Heads of Agreement on Skills Reform, including:

• Simplifying, rationalising and streamlining national VET qualifications across industry occupation clusters and the AQF, and introducing improved industry engagement arrangements.
• Strengthening quality standards, building RTO capacity and capability for continuous improvement and developing a VET workforce quality strategy.

In 2022, the Skills and Workforce Ministerial Council was tasked by National Cabinet with the productivity priority of skills reform, which includes a 12 month Free-TAFE Agreement in 2023 and a new 5-year National Skills Agreement. The Free-TAFE agreement has been extended to three years from January 2024. The National Skills Agreement commenced on 1 January 2024 and delivers on National Cabinet's shared vision and principles for VET.

Industry engagement arrangements

Industry Clusters are groups of aligned industries with a strategic leadership role to identify, forecast and respond to the current and emerging skills needs and workforce challenges of their industries. Industry Clusters strengthen tripartite leadership in the VET system, bringing all parties to the table to find solutions to skills and workforce challenges. Employer organisations and unions work together in Industry Cluster governance (board composition, membership structures), and operational arrangements (strategic taskforces and technical sub-committees).

Industry clusters are responsible for ensuring qualifications are developed and updated quickly and training products are aligned with the needs of industry. They also have a role in driving collaboration across sectors, working cooperatively with RTOs to ensure training delivery meets employer needs and working with the National Careers Institute to promote careers.

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations undertakes compliance assessments of training packages developed by Industry Clusters against the standards set by Skills Ministers.

Regulation of VET

The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) accredits courses and regulates RTOs to ensure nationally approved quality standards are met. ASQA has jurisdiction over all RTOs, except for those that are state accredited and operate solely in Victoria or WA (and do not offer courses to interstate and overseas students).

Registered Training Organisations

RTOs are those training providers registered by ASQA (or, in some cases, a state regulator) to deliver VET services, including:

• government VET providers – such as technical and further education (TAFE) institutes, agricultural colleges and multi-sector education institutions
• community education providers – such as adult and community education providers
• other registered providers – such as: private training businesses; industry and community bodies with an RTO arm; employers that have RTO status to train their own staff; Group Training Organisations or Apprenticeship Network Providers that also deliver VET services.

Nationally recognised training

Nationally recognised training leads to vocational qualifications and credentials that are recognised across Australia. It consists of the following components:

• Training packages specify the knowledge and skills (known as competencies) required by individuals to perform effectively in the workplace. Training packages detail how units of competency can be packaged into nationally recognised qualifications that align to the AQF. Training packages are approved for implementation by the Australian Industry and Skills Committee (AISC).
• Accredited qualifications refer to nationally recognised courses that lead to a qualification outcome not specified in a national training package.
• Accredited courses have been assessed by a VET regulator as compliant with the Standards for VET accredited courses 2012.
• Training package skill sets are defined as single units of competency, or combinations of units of competency from an endorsed training package, which link to a licensing or regulatory requirement, or a defined industry need.
• Units of competency and accredited modules define the skills and knowledge to operate effectively in a workplace context. They are the smallest study components that can be assessed and recognised. Where a student enrols in a unit/module not part of one of the categories above, they are reported as ‘subjects not delivered as part of a nationally recognised program’.

All nationally recognised training is listed on the National Training Register and only RTOs can deliver nationally recognised training and issue nationally recognised qualifications or statements of attainment on the full or partial completion of training. Apprenticeships/traineeships combine employment and competency-based training, including both formal nationally recognised training and on-the-job training.

Figure 5.2 outlines the major funding flows within the VET system.

Figure 5.2 Major funding flows within the VET system

a The Australian Government provides VET in Schools funding to the state and territory governments as a part of the National Specific Purpose Payment for Skills and Workforce Development. State and territory governments provide funding to government and non-government schools for VET in Schools programs.
b School education institutions may operate with an RTO arm, providing courses that may combine traditional studies with VET.
c Except in WA where overseas student fees are received by the State Training Authority.

Government grants and competitive tendering

The main source of government recurrent funding of VET is via government grants and appropriations and/or competitive tendering/user choice mechanisms. In 2022, available VET funding for state and territory government was $5.9 billion (table 5A.5).

• State and territory governments provided $3.6 billion (62.0%).
• The Australian Government provided around $2.2 billion to state and territory governments (38.0%) with the majority provided through specific purpose payments.

Government funding of VET is provided to a mixture of government RTOs (including TAFEs), and community education providers and other registered RTOs. Nationally, government payments to non-TAFE providers amounted to $1.3 billion in 2022, a decrease from 2021 (table 5A.4).

Nationally in 2022, $3.1 billion (53.0%) of government appropriations and program funding was allocated on a competitive basis – a 7.4% decrease in real terms from 2021. The majority of funding allocated on a competitive basis was provided through entitlement funding programs (refer to Explanatory material tab for a definition) (59.8% of all contestable funding allocated to VET in 2022) (table 5A.5).

Other funding

Financial support to students, employers and industry from the Australian, state and territory governments includes the following:

• Incentives and loans to individuals – such as incentive payments (for example, to support with the cost of learning during training) and program subsidies and government loans (for example, VET Student Loans – refer to Explanatory material tab for a definition).
• Skills development and incentives to employers – including support with the cost of employing and training staff in the form of subsidies and incentive payments (such as for Australian Apprenticeships).
• Support for the National Training System – including funding to industry bodies to support the training system, and assist in the identification of skills needs and the development of skills programs (for example, Skills Service Organisations and the Australian Apprenticeship Support Network).

Governments provide for a number of specifically funded VET programs to provide support for target individuals or communities. For example, support for people with special needs to engage with training, or support for VET delivered in secondary schools.

Students

Nationally in 2022, around 4.5 million students participated in VET (total VET students) (table 5A.8). Around 2.0 million students were enrolled in qualifications, with the largest number of these students enrolled in Certificate level III or IV qualifications (over 1.3 million), followed by Certificate level I or II (413,700), and Diploma or above (375,100) qualifications. Other students were enrolled in subjects not delivered as part of a nationally recognised program (over 3.0 million) and in training package skill sets and accredited courses (210,200).

In 2022, almost 1.2 million students participated in government-funded VET (table 5A.9). Over 1.0 million students were enrolled in government-funded qualifications, with the largest number of these students enrolled in Certificate level III or IV qualifications (742,500), followed by Certificate level I or II (181,800) and Diploma or above (131,900) qualifications. Other students were enrolled in other forms of government-funded nationally recognised and non-nationally recognised training.

Data on student participation in government-funded VET by target group (by Indigenous status, remoteness area and disability status) is available in tables 5A.10–12.

Training providers

In 2022, there were 3,589 registered VET training organisations delivering nationally recognised training in Australia (table 5A.6), of which 1,267 delivered nationally recognised government-funded VET through state and territory training departments (NCVER, unpublished). There were 1,464 VET providers delivering government-funded nationally recognised, locally developed and non-nationally recognised training, at 41,327 locations in Australia (table 5A.7).

‘Barriers to participation in VET by selected equity group’ is an indicator of governments’ objective that the national training system is provided in an equitable manner.

‘Barriers to participation in VET by selected equity group’ is defined as the proportion of the population aged 15–64 years from selected equity groups who reported facing barriers to accessing or completing VET courses. For this report, the selected equity groups are:

• people from remote and very remote areas
• People from low socioeconomic areas. A low socioeconomic area is defined to be people residing in an area with a Socioeconomic Indexes for Areas Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage of the lowest quintile.

Data is not available for reporting against this measure for other selected equity groups.

Data for barriers to accessing courses by remoteness and SEIFA groups is collected from the Survey of Work–Related Training and Adult Learning (WRTAL), 2021-22. Participants were asked whether there were any occasions in the past 12 months where they had wanted to do a qualification at bachelor degree level or above, or below bachelor level, but had not been able to, and if so, what were the reasons they were not able to.

Similar proportion of persons in selected equity groups reporting that they encounter barriers to accessing or completing VET courses relative to people not from these selected equity groups is desirable.

In 2020-21, the proportion of people who wanted to participate in any (or more) formal study below bachelor degree level in the last 12 months but could not was highest in major cities (2.7%) and lowest in outer regional and remote areas (0.4%). Results across SEIFA quintiles were fairly constant ranging from 0.7% in both the lowest and highest quintiles to 0.9% in the third quintile (figure 5.3).

‘Barriers to participation in VET’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to create a national training system that is accessible to all working age Australians.

Barriers to participation in VET’ is defined as the proportion of the population aged 15–64 years who reported facing barriers to accessing or completing VET courses.

Data for barriers to accessing courses is collected from the Survey of Work–Related Training and Adult Learning (WRTAL), 2021-22. Participants were asked whether there were any occasions in the past 12 months where they had wanted to do a qualification at bachelor degree level or above, or below bachelor level, but had not been able to, and if so, what were the reasons they were not able to.

A lower proportion of persons reporting that they encounter barriers to accessing or completing VET courses is desirable.

Nationally in 2020-21, 5.5% of people wanted to participate in any (or more) formal study in the last 12 months but could not. The proportion was higher for barriers to enrolment in a qualification (or more qualifications) below bachelor degree level (3.8%), than for enrolment in a qualification (or more qualifications) at bachelor degree level or above (2.3%) (figure 5.4). The main barriers to participation include too much work / no time and financial reasons.

‘Students who achieve main reason for training’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to create a national training system that meets the needs of students, employers and industries.

‘Students who achieve main reason for training’ is defined as the proportion of government‑funded VET qualification completers who reported that the training 'fully' or 'partly' helped them achieve their main reason for training.

This measure relates to the activities of government‑funded VET activity only.

Data is collected from the annual national Student Outcomes Survey for qualification completers aged 18 years and over. Survey data for a year (for example, 2023) refers to the cohort of students that graduated the year before (for example, 2022).

A high or increasing proportion of students whose training helped them achieve their main reason for training is desirable.

Nationally in 2023, 88.2% of government‑funded 2022 VET qualification completers reported that training 'fully' or 'partly' helped achieve their main reason for training (figure 5.5). The proportion was higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander government‑funded qualification completers (89.4%) in 2023 (table 5A.13).

‘Employer satisfaction with VET’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to create a national training system that meets the needs of students, employers and industries.

‘Employer satisfaction with VET’ is defined as the proportion of employers who engaged in an aspect of VET, and who were satisfied with all forms of VET engagement.

‘Engagement with VET’ includes if the employer had employees undertaking an apprenticeship or traineeship, or had arranged or provided their employees with nationally recognised training, or had employees with formal vocational qualifications as a requirement of their job.

This measure relates to total VET activity².

Data is collected from the biennial Survey of Employers’ Use and Views of the VET system and represents the responses of employers with at least one employee and their training experiences in the 12 months prior to the survey.

A high or increasing proportion of employers who are satisfied with VET in meeting the skill needs of their workforce is desirable.

Nationally in 2023, 56.8% of Australian employers were engaged with VET (table 5A.15), of which 66.4% were satisfied with all forms of VET engagement (down from 72.9% in 2015) (figure 5.6). By type of training engaged in, satisfaction with apprenticeships and traineeships has shown the largest percentage point decrease (8.5%; from 81.7% in 2015 to 73.2% in 2023) (figure 5.6 and table 5A.16).

2. As government-funded VET engagement of employers cannot be determined from the survey. Locate Footnote 2 above

‘Student satisfaction with quality of training’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to create a national training system that is high quality.

‘Student satisfaction with quality of training’ is defined as the proportion of government‑funded VET qualification completers who reported being satisfied with the overall quality of training.

This measure relates to government‑funded VET activity only.

Data is collected from the annual national Student Outcomes Survey for qualification completers aged 18 years and over. Survey data for a year (for example, 2023) refers to the cohort of students that graduated the year before (for example, 2022). Qualification completers satisfied with their training include those who ‘Strongly agree’ or ‘Agree’ with the relevant questionnaire item.

A high or increasing proportion of qualification completers satisfied with their training is desirable.

Nationally in 2023, 89.1% of all government‑funded 2022 VET qualification completers indicated that they were satisfied with the overall quality of their training (figure 5.7). The proportion was higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander government‑funded qualification completers (91.6%).

Satisfaction with instructors (87.0%) was lower than satisfaction with assessment (89.2%) (table 5A.14).

‘Service quality’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to create a national training system that is high quality.

‘Service quality’ is defined as providers that were subject to compliance audit and had critical/serious findings as a proportion of all regulated providers.

A lower proportion of providers with critical/serious audit findings is desirable.

Data for this indicator are provided by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA). ASQA only has partial coverage for regulating VET training providers in Victoria and Western Australia so caution needs to be used when comparing the results from these jurisdictions. While data are broken down by jurisdiction, ASQA does not consider these boundaries when undertaking its duties.

In 2022-23, the proportion of the providers audited as a proportion of all regulated providers was 5.8%. The proportion of providers that were subject to compliance audit and with critical/serious findings, as a proportion of all regulated providers was 1.4%. This is an increase from 0.4% in 2021-22 (figure 5.8).

‘Workforce sustainability’ is an indicator of governments’ objective to provide sustainable VET services.

VET workforce sustainability relates to the capacity of the VET workforce to meet current and projected future service demand. These measures are not a substitute for a full workforce analysis that allows for training, migration, changing patterns of work and expected future demand. They can, however, indicate that further attention should be given to workforce planning for VT services.

This indicator is currently under development for reporting in the future.

‘Government recurrent expenditure per annual hour’ is an indicator of governments’ objective that the national training system is provided in an efficient manner.

'Government recurrent expenditure per annual hour’ is defined as government recurrent expenditure (including user cost of capital) divided by government‑funded annual hours (for further information on expenditure data refer to Interpreting efficiency data in the Explanatory material tab).

This measure relates to government‑funded VET plus fee‑for‑service activity of government providers.

Lower or decreasing unit costs can indicate efficient delivery of VET services.

'Government recurrent expenditure per annual hour' should be interpreted carefully because low or decreasing unit costs do not necessarily reflect improved efficiency. The factors that have the greatest impact on efficiency include:

• training related factors, such as class sizes, teaching salaries, teaching hours per full-time equivalent staff member and differences in the length of training programs
• differences across jurisdictions, including sociodemographic composition, administrative scale, and dispersion and scale of service delivery
• VET policies and practices, including the level of fees and charges paid by students.

Nationally in 2022, government real recurrent expenditure decreased 5.2% from 2021 (table 5A.1), and the number of governments funded annual hours (course mix adjusted) decreased 2.6% (table 5A.2). These annual movements resulted in a decrease in recurrent expenditure per annual hour from $21.44 in 2021 to $20.86 in 2022 (figure 5.9).

‘Student employment and further study outcomes’ is an indicator of governments’ objective that the VET system deliver a productive and highly skilled workforce through enabling all working age Australians to develop and use the skills required to participate effectively in the labour market and contribute to Australia’s economic future.

‘Student employment and further study outcomes’ is defined by two measures. The proportion of total VET qualification completers aged 20–64 years:

• employed and/or in further study after training (total and by selected equity groups [Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from remote and very remote areas, and people with disability])
• who improved their employment status after training (total and by selected equity groups [Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from remote and very remote areas, and people with disability]).

  ‘Improved employment status’ is at least one of:

  • employment status changing from not employed before training to employed either full‑time or part‑time after training. ‘Not employed’ is defined as unemployed, not in the labour force, or not employed (no further information)
  • employed at a higher skill level after training
  • received a job‑related benefit after completing their training, including got a job or changed job, set up or expanded their own business, got a promotion, gained extra skills for their job, increased earnings, kept current job or other job‑related benefits.

Survey data for a year (for example, 2023) refers to the cohort of students that graduated the year before (for example, 2022).

Holding other factors constant, higher or increasing proportions indicate positive employment or further study outcomes after training.

Comparison of labour market outcomes should also account for the general economic conditions in each jurisdiction.

Nationally in 2023, 89.9% of 20–64 year old total VET qualification completers from 2022 were employed and/or continued on to further study after training (figure 5.10a) – up from 89.1% in 2022. The proportion was higher for people from remote and very remote areas (91.9%) and lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (88.0%) and people with disability (80.4%).

For government‑funded VET qualification completers, 88.9% were employed and/or continued on to further study in 2023 (lower than the proportion for total VET qualification completers) – up from 87.5% in 2022. The proportion was higher for people from remote and very remote areas (91.5%) and lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (86.8%) and people with disability (80.5%) (table 5A.18).

Nationally in 2023, 73.7% of 20–64 year old total VET qualification completers from 2022 improved their employment status after training (figure 5.10b) – up from 71.4% in 2022. The proportion was higher for people from remote and very remote areas (78.9%), slightly lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (72.7%) and lower for people with disability (57.2%) (table 5A.19).

For government‑funded qualification completers, 72.3% had improved employment status in 2023 (lower than the proportion for total VET qualification completers) – up from 69.8% in 2022. The proportion was higher for people from remote and very remote areas (78.5%), slightly lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (71.3%) and lower for people with disability (56.1%) (table 5A.20).

In 2023, for both total VET and government‑funded qualification completers, the proportion who improved their employment status was lower for qualification completers completing a Certificate I/II qualification (60.6% and 51.1% respectively), compared with qualification completers completing a Certificate III/IV qualification (75.1% and 74.4% respectively) or a Diploma and above qualification (75.8% and 75.1% respectively) (tables 5A.21–22).

By type of improved employment status for both total VET and government-funded qualification completers (figure 5.10b), the proportion was highest for qualification completers receiving a job‑related benefit (85.6% and 86.4% respectively), followed by employed after training (who were not employed before training) (56.2% and 55.1% respectively) and employed at a higher skill level after training (17.6% and 21.2%) (tables 5A.21-22).

‘Student completions and qualifications’ is an indicator of governments’ objective that the VET system deliver a productive and highly skilled workforce through enabling all working age Australians to develop and use the skills required to effectively participate in the labour market and contribute to Australia’s economic future.

‘Student completions and qualifications’ is defined as the number of total VET AQF qualifications completed each year by students aged 15–64 years, per 1,000 people aged 15–64 years (total and by selected equity groups [Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from remote and very remote areas, and people with disability]).

Qualification completions data is ‘preliminary’ for 2022 and ‘final’ for earlier years.

A higher or increasing rate of completed qualifications increases the national pool of skilled people in Australia. However, this measure needs to be interpreted with care as the rate of qualification completions:

• by selected equity group (other than for remoteness) depends on obtaining accurate responses to self‑identification questions at the time of enrolment, which may vary across jurisdictions. A large unknown (or not stated) response could mean that the completion rate for the selected equity group is understated
• uses a different data source for the numerator and denominator, which can affect comparability.

Nationally in 2022, around 716,400 qualifications were completed by total VET students aged 15–64 years (table 5A.23) – equivalent to 42.6 qualifications per 1,000 people aged 15–64 years (figure 5.11a). The rate was higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (49.4), and higher for people from remote and very remote areas (43.0). The number of qualification completions by total VET students declined 5.3% from 2018 to 2022 (table 5A.23).

Around 316,900 qualifications were completed by government‑funded VET students aged 15–64 years – equivalent to 18.9 qualifications per 1,000 people aged 15–64 years (table 5A.24). The number of government‑funded VET qualification completions declined 7.0% from 2018 to 2022 (table 5A.24).

By qualification level, the rate of total VET qualifications completed per 1,000 people aged 15−64 years was highest for Certificate III/IV (24.5), followed by Certificate I/II (9.9) and Diploma and above (8.2) (figure 5.11b).

Of the 716,400 qualifications completed by total VET students, 57.5% were for Certificate III/IV, 23.2% for Certificate I/II and 19.3% for Diploma and above (table 5A.25). For the 316,900 completed by government-funded VET students, there was a greater concentration in Certificate III/IV (64.3%), followed by 22.1% for Certificate I/II and 13.6% for Diploma and above (table 5A.26).

‘Students who improved education status’ is an indicator of governments’ objective that the VET system deliver a productive and highly skilled workforce through enabling all working age Australians to develop and use the skills required to effectively participate in the labour market and contribute to Australia’s economic future.

'Students who improved education status’ is defined as the proportion of total VET AQF qualifications completed by 20–64 year olds which were at a higher education level than their previous highest education level (total and by selected equity groups [Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from remote and very remote areas, and people with disability]).

Higher or increasing proportions of students with improved education status after training indicate that the skill levels of the working age population are increasing.

Of all total VET qualification completers aged 20–64 years that completed an AQF qualification nationally in 2022, 46.5% did so with a higher qualification than their previous highest AQF qualification (figure 5.12). The proportion was higher for all three selected equity groups – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (56.6%), people from remote and very remote areas (50.7%) and for people with disability (49.1%) (table 5A.27).

Nationally, for government-funded VET qualification completers aged 20–64 years that completed an AQF qualification in 2022, 55.9% did so with a higher qualification than their previous highest AQF qualification (table 5A.28).

For total VET qualification completers that completed an AQF Certificate III or above in 2022, 50.1% did so with a higher qualification than their previous AQF – lower than the proportion for government-funded Certificate III or above qualification completions (60.1%) (tables 5A.29-30).

Additional information is provided on the number of qualifications completed as a proportion of the number of enrolments (rather than the proportion of the number of completions). In 2022, 13.8% of total VET enrolments by 20–64 year olds were completed at a higher education level – lower than government‑funded VET enrolments (14.7%) (tables 5A.27-28).

‘Skill utilisation’ is an indicator of governments’ objective that the VET system deliver a productive and highly skilled workforce through enabling all working age Australians to develop and use the skills required to effectively participate in the labour market and contribute to Australia’s economic future.

'Skill utilisation’ is defined as the proportion of persons aged 15–64 years who completed their highest VET qualification (AQF Certificate levels I to IV, Diploma and Advanced Diploma) in the last five years, that are working in the field of the highest VET qualification or not working in the same field and the qualification is relevant to their current job.

A high or increasing proportion of persons who were either working in the field of their highest VET qualification or the qualification was relevant to their current job is desirable.

Nationally in 2018-19, 79.8% of persons aged 15–64 years that completed their highest VET qualification in the last five years, were either working in the field of that qualification or not working in same field and the qualification was relevant to their current job. This proportion is lower than 2015 (83.0%), but similar to 2010-11 (79.9%) (figure 5.13).

Nationally in 2018-19, 68.1% were working in the field of the highest VET qualification and 11.6% were not working in the same field but the qualification is relevant to their current job (table 5A.33).

Comparability of cost estimates

Government recurrent expenditure for 2017 onwards is calculated using data prepared by Commonwealth, state and Territory governments under the Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard (AVETMISS) for VET funding data. Data is prepared annually on an accrual basis.

Government recurrent expenditure for 2017 onwards is deemed as being equivalent to the recurrent funds received by state and territory government departments responsible for VET (net of payroll tax) provided by state and territory governments and the following Commonwealth fund:

• Ongoing specific purpose payments and National Parentship Agreement funding; and
• A limited subset of Commonwealth recurrent program funding – the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) and Skills for Education and Employment (SEE) paid directly by the Commonwealth to public providers.

Expenditure is also increased by the user cost of capital (estimated as 8% of the value of total physical non‑current assets owned by government RTOs).

For the years prior to 2017, government recurrent expenditure is calculated using data prepared by state and territory governments under the AVETMISS for VET financial data. Details for the calculation for years prior to 2017 are available in the footnotes for table 5A.1.

Payroll tax payments by government‑owned RTOs are deducted from the total to ensure a consistent treatment across jurisdictions.

Government recurrent expenditure for VET may be affected by the movement of TAFE institutes between government and non‑government sectors. User cost of capital should be interpreted carefully. Differences in some input costs (for example, land values) can affect reported costs across jurisdictions without necessarily reflecting the efficiency of service delivery. The value of land is presented separately from the value of other assets to allow users assessing the results to consider any differences in land values across jurisdictions. The basis for the 8% capital charge is discussed in section 1.

To promote comparability of the data across states and territories, as well as comparability between the financial and activity data, annual hours are adjusted by the course mix weight when calculating the efficiency indicator.

Expenditure data for years prior to 2021 is adjusted to real dollars (2021 dollars) using the gross domestic product chain price index (table 5A.31).