The estimable National Centre for Vocational Education and Research reports publicly funded training and course data for the first quarter – perhaps it should not have bothered. Total students in January – March 2018 are down 3.7 per cent, to 608 500, on 1st Q ’17. But, and it is a but of Himalayan height, the data is less robust than on life support.
The NCVER advises numbers were collected using an update of the national VET MIS and “some jurisdictions have experienced implementation issues, which may affect comparability with earlier quarters.” There are 2 and half pages of notes on “data quality and comparability issues.”