Good news on training attrition is still bad news

Publicly funded VET providers are increasing completions according to a new analysis

The estimable National Centre for Vocational Education Research says publicly funded trainers are graduating more students, with improvements pronounced for higher level certificates and diplomas. The NCVER bases the findings on its own statistical analysis of data and trends.

The research finds that while actual Certificate III completions were 47 per cent in 2012 they are projected to have increased to 55 per cent in 2015. For Certificate IV completions are assumed to have moved from an actual 46 per cent in ’12 to 52 per cent in 2015. The improvement for diplomas was 49 per cent to 56 per cent.

The highest graduation subject area for 2015 was physical sciences (63 per cent) followed by society and culture (59 per cent) and health 58 per cent). The only discipline the NCVER expects to have a lower 2015 outcome than the actual completion rate for 2012 is education, projected to decline from 59 per cent in ’12 to 51 per cent in 2015.

Of course another way of looking at the figures is that at best the training system has attrition rates of 45 per cent.