by CLAIRE FIELD

There was a flurry of media last week on the apparent shift in young people choosing VET over university as their post-school destination

The claims were triggered by the release of the first data from the 2021 Census. Some experts suggested that this shift was due in large part to the former government’s focus on apprenticeships and the trades.

While detailed data from the 2021 Census is not yet available, the ABS noted ahead of last year’s Census that “key users of Census data have raised concerns about the under-estimation of people attending preschool and vocational education and training. Several minor changes have been made to the instructional text and the response categories to give more clarity to these educational institution types.”

When looking at the 2016 and 2021 data on “attendance at an educational institution” it is important to keep in mind that while there has been an increase in the number of Census respondents stating that they were studying at a VET provider, overwhelmingly Australian school leavers still prefer higher education as a destination to VET (according to the Census data).

Equally importantly, in 2021 there were nearly 1.5m people who answered yes to the question “are you attending school or another type of education institution?” and then did not tick a box at the next question to identify which kind of institution they were attending. They made up 18 per cent of all people who said they were attending school or another education institution in the 2021 Census.

By comparison in 2016 there were 1.7m people (24 per cent) who were in the same position, i.e. they filled in the Census saying they were studying but then didn’t go on to specify the institution type.

So the ABS has been successful in getting more people who are attending an educational institution to give details of the type of institution, although sizeable numbers still leave the question blank. And what this means is that while there has been a growth since 2016 in people reporting they were enrolled at an education institution on Census night, at least some of the apparent growth in VET enrolments is just as likely due to more people filling in their Census form correctly.

Claire Field was joined on the latest episode of the ‘What now? What next?’ podcast to discuss changes in apprenticeships and VET qualifications by Victoria University’s Lizzie Knight.