Total VET students and courses 2019

Explanatory notes

Scope

1. Activity covered in this publication includes nationally recognised VET delivered by registered training providers (RTOs):
   • TAFE institutes
   • universities
   • community education providers
   • enterprise providers
   • private training providers
   • schools
   • Australian training providers delivering VET at overseas campuses.
2. This publication does not cover the following types of training:
   • non-nationally recognised training
   • credit transfer
   • superseded training (reported with national outcome identifier '61 - superseded training')
   • any activity where revenue was earned from another training provider in terms of sub-contracting, auspicing, partnership or similar arrangements.

Data sources

3. The information contained in this publication is, unless otherwise stated, derived from the National VET Provider Collection and the National VET in Schools Collection, with duplicated activity removed. For the National VET Provider Collection, data can be reported to NCVER directly by the training providers or via state training authorities. For the National VET in Schools Collection, data are reported directly by the boards of studies and via the state training authorities to NCVER. These collections are compiled under the Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard, release 8.0. For further information on AVETMISS go to <https://www.ncver.edu.au/rto-hub/statistical-standard-software/avetmiss-vet-provider-collection-specifications-release-8.0>.
4. NCVER applies a process to identify and remove duplicate training activity where the same activity is reported for the same training provider in the same collection period via different submission pathways. For more information, refer to the fact sheet De-duplication of training activity in 'total VET activity' located at < https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/collections/students-and-courses-collection/total-vet-activity-tva-fact-sheets>.
5. This publication also makes use of data and classification information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). For more information, refer to the fact sheet Use of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data in 'total VET activity' located at < https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/collections/students-and-courses-collection/total-vet-activity-tva-fact-sheets>.

Student counts

6. NCVER applies a methodology to distinctly count students who may be enrolled at multiple training providers. For further information, refer to the fact sheet Student counts in 'total VET activity' located at < https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/collections/students-and-courses-collection/total-vet-activity-tva-fact-sheets > or the technical paper Counting students in Total VET students and courses located at < https://www.ncver.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/796213/Technical-paper-Counting-students-in-Total-VET-students-and-courses.pdf >.

Comparison to other collections

7. This publication reports a higher number of government funded students (1.25 million) and full-year training equivalents (548 900) than Government-funded students and courses 2019 (1.15 million and 490 500 respectively) as it includes data from the National VET in Schools Collection and a small amount of Commonwealth specific funding program activity that is submitted directly to NCVER by RTOs.
8. In this publication, the number of apprentices and trainees undertaking off-the-job training in 2019 (312 900) exceeds the number of apprentices and trainees in-training as at 31 December 2019, derived from the National Apprentice and Trainee Collection. The key reason for differences between the collections are that data in this publication is based on a count of students enrolled in VET at any time during the calendar year, while in-training data derived from the National Apprentice and Trainee Collection is a point-in-time snapshot of training.
9. For further information on the differences between data in this publication and other reports produced by NCVER, refer to the fact sheet Comparing data from other national VET collections with 'total VET activity' located at < https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/collections/students-and-courses-collection/total-vet-activity-tva-fact-sheets>.

Training provider counts

10. The number of training providers is a distinct count of training providers who submitted data within each state or territory and training provider category. Some training providers deliver VET in more than one state or territory and/or report data under more than one provider type. Therefore, the training providers are counted in each state/territory category and provider type category but are only counted once in the total.
11. 'Provider type' in this publication is based on a valid national code listed on the National Training Register (training.gov.au). This may be different from that reported in Government-funded students and courses as provider reporting type is a derived field based on the combination of the submitter identifier and training organisation type identifier. For further information refer to < https://www.ncver.edu.au/data/collection/government-funded-students-and-courses>.

Data treatment

12. Note that the percentages presented in this publication are reported to one decimal place. Other numbers have been rounded after aggregation to the nearest hundred. Rounding can lead to situations where individual numbers might not add to the rounded totals.

Data revisions

13. The data in this publication may be revised for several reasons. For consistency of reporting, some previously reported data are rebased using data collected for the current year. For example, if a training provider was reported in the current year with provider type of ‘school’ but in the previous year the same provider was reported as 'community education provider', NCVER will adjust the previously reported provider type to match that of the current year. Improvements to de-duplication and student counting methodology may also lead to minor variations in data reported between years.
14. In addition to the above, a small amount of data can be submitted to NCVER after the reporting window has closed. These data will not be included in the current publication. However, they will be included in the following year's publication resulting in minor variations in the data.

Missing training activity

15. Registered training organisations who delivered nationally recognised training in 2019, but were not expected to submit data, include those training organisations who:
    • were exempt from reporting enrolment/completion level data to the National VET Provider Collection as the training was part of a vital community service or the training could not be reported as it would conflict with defence and national security legislation and/or could jeopardise the personal safety of border protection, customs, and national security or police personnel
    • were not operating at the time of data submission.
16. The current collection coverage issues are outlined below:
    • It is estimated 175 registered training organisations did not report data on 2019 training activity.
    • Of the 3 671 training providers who reported data on 2019 training activity, it is not known whether they reported all their training activity. For example, some training providers may have only reported their government funded activity and not their fee-for-service activity. Furthermore, some data on training activity delivered in offshore locations are likely to be missing. NCVER is unable to estimate the completeness of the data reported or estimate the size of the missing activity.

Not known information

17. Caution should be taken when using data with a large number of 'not known' responses. Data are reported as 'not known' for the following reasons:
    • information was not collected
    • a student has not responded to a question on the enrolment form
    • invalid information was supplied
    • where duplicate student records have conflicting demographic information; for example, where the same student is reported as both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
18. The extent of the 'not known' data for selected student characteristics is illustrated in the following table.
    

    Table 1 Proportion of students with 'not known' data, 2015–19 (%)

    	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
    Gender	4.0	3.7	2.7	4.2	3.5
    Age	1.6	2.3	1.7	1.1	0.5
    Indigenous status	15.2	13.7	11.9	11.8	10.1
    Disability (including impairment or long-term condition)	16.0	15.6	14.8	15.0	11.9
    Student remoteness region	4.1	6.1	5.8	6.4	8.0
    SEIFA (IRSD)	8.9	11.0	11.1	12.4	14.0
    School status	14.7	14.4	12.8	13.0	11.8
    Language other than English spoken at home	23.0	19.8	18.6	19.9	19.1
    Labour force status	26.0	23.0	23.6	23.7	21.8