vocational education and training (vet) and young victorians - a way forward
TRANSCRIPT
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Vocational Education and Training (VET)
and young Victorians:a way forward
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2 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Vocational Education and Training (VET) and youngVictorians: a way forward
ISBN: 978-1-875261-05-5
Published February 2013
Youth Aairs Council of Victoria (YACVic)
Level 2, 180 Flinders Street
Melbourne
Victoria 3000
Ph: (03) 9267 3799 Fax: (03) 9639 1622
website: www.yacvic.org.au
email: [email protected]
Further coies of this ublicaon are available by
contacng YACVic: [email protected]
PDF versions can be downloaded from
www.yacvic.org.au
Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
The Youth Aairs Council of Victoria gives ermission
for excerts of this reort to be reroduced on thecondion they be fully referenced and acknowleged.
Acknowlegdements
Thanks to: the Victorian Rural Youth Services network,
Women in Adult and Vocaonal Educaon, the
Brotherhood of St Laurence, the Country Educaon
Project, the Victorian Council of Social Service, UB Tec,
the Naonal Centre for Dairy Educaon, the McAuley
Chamagnat Programme (Notre Dame College), and
the Local Learning and Emloyment Networks in
the Goulburn Murray, North Central, Baw Baw, East
Gisland, South Gisland / Bass Coast and South
East regions, for their arcular assistance.
Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
The Youth Aairs Council of Victoria (YACVic) is the
eak body reresenng the youth sector in Victoria.
YACVic rovides a means through which the youth
sector and young eole can voice their oinions
and concerns in regards to olicy issues aecng
them. YACVic works with and makes reresentaonsto government and serves as an advocate for the
interests of young eole, and organisaons that
rovide direct services to young eole. YACVic also
romotes and suorts the arciaon of young
eole in debate and olicy develoment areas that
most aect them. YACVics resources are rimarily
directed towards olicy analysis and develoment,
research and consultaon, and to meeng the
informaon, networking, educaon and training needs
of our constuency. YACVic is funded by the Oce for
Youth, Deartment of Human Services.
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 3
Contents
Introducon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Execuve summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
What will the changes do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Who will be most aected? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
How do we build a strong future workforce? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Victorian policy context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Subsidies and cas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Student access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Analysing the changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Why consider young people? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
An ageing oulaon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Parciaon of young eole. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Implicaons for young people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Rates of arciaon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Level of arciaon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Study athways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Places of study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Vulnerable grous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Implicaons for rural and regional Victoria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Rural disadvantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Regional imacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Implicaons for young women. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Gender disadvantage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
How to create a strong future workforce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Data collecon and analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Resources to deliver equity outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Provision of informaon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Reform to address gender inequity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Recommendaons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Data collecon and analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Resources to deliver equity outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Provision of informaon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Reform to address gender inequity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Examples of VET provision in rural and regional Victoria for young people facing disadvantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
UB Tec (University of Ballarat, Technical Educaon Centre) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
The McAuley Chamagnat Programme (Notre Dame College), Shearton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Networks and artnershis, Goulburn Murray region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Naonal Centre for Dairy Educaon Australia, Terang camus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
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4 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Introduction
In 2012, the Victorian Government released its
report Refocusing Vocaonal Training in Victoria. This
signicant new direcon in Vocaonal and Educaon
Training (VET) olicy and racce will have arcular
imacts uon young eole exeriencing, or at risk
of, disadvantage.
Given the imortance of engaging young eole
in athways to skills develoment and meaningful
emloyment meaningful both to themselves and
the Victorian economy this is a crical area of ublic
olicy for the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria (YACVic).
YACVic is the eak body and leading advocacy
organisaon for young eole in Victoria and the
services that suort them. Our vision is for a
Victorian community in which all young eole
are valued as acve arciants, have their rights
recognised and are treated fairly and with resect.YACVic has worked for and with young Victorians and
the services that suort them for over 50 years. We
romote young eoles equal access to educaon,
jobs and suort services wherever they live. To this
end, YACVic hosts the Victorian Rural Youth Services
iniave, a network of services concerned with young
eoles wellbeing in rural and regional Victoria, who
have also contributed their insights to this aer.
This reort seeks to idenfy the imact of the VET
changes on young eole in Victoria, and to suggest
future direcons to deliver the best ossible outcomesfor young Victorians and their communies.
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 5
Executive summary
In 2012, the Victorian Government announced
changes to the Vocaonal Educaon and
Training (VET) system that is exected to have a
disrooronate imact on young eole, arcularly
those from disadvantaged backgrounds and
vulnerable grous and regions, including rural andregional Victoria.
The changes come at a crical oint for Victoria, as
the states oulaon is ageing, with around one
in four Victorians exected to be aged over 65 in
2050.1 Our future roserity will rely on increasing
both labour force arciaon and roducvity; yet
currently a signicant number of young Victorians the generaon crical for the workforce of the future
are not engaged in full-me work or educaon.
Invesng in the skills, wellbeing and caacity of young
Victorians has never been so imortant.
What will the changes do?
The full imacts of the recent VET changes in Victoria
are sll to be roerly assessed, and it is likely that
some will be osive. However, already there have
been cuts to courses and sta at a number of roviders,
and concerns are being raised about the imact of the
loss of TAFE base funding uon vital suort services
for students exeriencing disadvantage.
VET is a signicant athway to engage young eole
in educaon and the workforce, notably for those
who are keen to go into a trade aer leaving school,those who have not remained in convenonal
schooling, and those who are facing disadvantage or
instability at home. Their successful transion through
VET has imortant imlicaons for Victorias future
roducvity and economic growth.
Without intervenon, it is likely that many young
Victorians will deart or no longer consider the VET
system. This is because young eole are more likely
to be studying at junior levels or in courses that are
deemed to be less valuable and are likely to receive
lower subsidies, be oered at fewer locaons and cost
more to aend. The removal of course cas and the
re-seng of concession fees are also likely to increase
costs borne by students.
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6 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Who will be most aected?
The VET changes are likely to disrooronately aect
those young eole who are already at a disadvantage,
including:
young Indigenous eole
those who have been in the child rotecon or
youth jusce systems
young eole with a disability or mental health
problem
those who have le school early and/or have
oor literacy and numeracy, and
recently arrived refugees.
They are also likely to hit two disnct grous: young
eole from rural and regional Victoria, and young
women arcularly those from rural and regional areas.
VET students from rural and regional Victoria are
more likely to be dealing with socio-economic and
educaonal disadvantage, so tend to go into VETwith relavely low levels of revious qualicaon
and are more likely to take Cercate courses at
junior levels. Access to VET is already much lower in
rural and regional areas, where growth in the sector
has not been as big or fast as metroolitan areas
have exerienced.
Gender is another imortant element that has long
aected access to and success rates in VET. Young
female students esecially those without a Year 12
qualicaon are disrooronately likely to achieve
lower qualicaon levels and develo more limited or
insecure career athways. Young women in rural and
regional areas are arcularly vulnerable.
How do we build a strong future workforce?
This reort rovides examles of some of the many
innovave local iniaves that are engaging more
vulnerable young eole in educaon and training.
Local brokerage bodies have also been suorng VET,
by forging strong collaborave relaonshis between
the dierent layers roviders, schools, suort
services and businesses and building local exerse
and caacity.
Iniaves and collaboraons which have demonstrated
success in using VET to imrove outcomes for young
eole should be suorted and exanded.
The VET changes risk exacerbang disadvantagealready being exerienced by vulnerable young
eole. However with further intervenon some of
these imacts could be ameliorated, and could instead
rovide the imetus to tackle entrenched issues.
Our recommendaons include calling on the Victorian
Government to:
Create a unique VET Equity Fund to suort
young eole facing disadvantage to access VET
and rogress through vocaonal athways to
sustainable work
Ensure strong collecon and analysis of data
around young eoles exeriences in VET, to
inform an evidence-based aroach
Take acon to address gender equity within VET
Provide clear, useful and comrehensive
informaon to young eole about theiroons within VET.
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 7
The Victorian policy context
From 2009, VET training in Victoria has been delivered
through a demand-driven model, where government
commied to rovide funding for registered training
for all eligible students those aged under 20 years
of age, or over 20 if they were undertaking training
at a foundaon level or at a level higher than theirexisng qualicaon. Since then, the VET sector has
grown considerably in enrolments, hours and training
roviders, mostly in the rivate sector. In 2011, around
597,000 Victorians were enrolled in VET at TAFEs,
other government instuons, community roviders
or rivate roviders u from 494,300 in 2009 and
520,000 in 2010.2
TAFEs received a higher hourly subsidy rate, on
grounds that their delivery costs were higher and
that they rovided a community suort role not
exected of rivate roviders. They also received
direct base funding which was tradionally used
to sulement sta wages (negoated throughenterrise bargaining), and to maintain facilies and
regional rovision.
In 2012, the Victorian Government announced
changes to the VET system in an eort to curb rising
costs, and to target subsidies towards courses judged
to deliver the greatest ublic and economic benets.
The changes are detailed below.
Subsidies and caps
From 2013, $1.2 billion down from $1.3 billion in
2012 will be allocated to subsidising training, with
all roviders (ublic and rivate) receiving the same
subsidy rates. Previously, there was a ca laced on
hourly fees, ensuring that roviders could only charge
students u to a certain rate for government-subsidised
training. This ca has now been removed and roviders
will be free to set their own rates. Addionally, TAFEs
will no longer receive funding for secic acvies
such as regional rovision, facilies maintenance and
honouring of enterrise agreement outcomes.3
Under the changes, subsidy levels to courses will vary,
with ve subsidy bands ranging from $210+ er
hour. Weighngs will be calculated according to an
assessment of the value of a course to the economy in
terms of jobs and roducvity, and where investment
is deemed necessary to smulate certain areas of
industry. Foundaonal and arenceshi courses
will aract higher subsidies; lower rates will aly to
courses at the diloma level and above (where student
loans are available), and at lower level cercates,
where the direct vocaonal benets are smaller.4
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8 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Wholesale trade
Transport, postal and warehousing
Retail trade
Rental, hiring and real estate services
Public administra@on and safety
Professional scien@fic and technical services
Other services (includes automo@ve and beauty)
Mining
Manufacturing
Informa@on technology and telecommunica@onsHealth care and social assistance
Founda@on skills, educa@on pathways and LOTE
Financial and insurance services
Electricity, gas, water and waste services
Educa@on and training
Construc@on
Art and recrea@on services
Agriculture, forestry and fishing
Administra@ve and support services
Accommoda@on and food services
$
Subsidy - $ per hour (Note: this is only an average. Varia@on exists between courses in each area, according to
topic and qualifica@on level.)
Hourly $ subsidy for VET courses - mean subsidy for each course area(Based on subsidies listed in DEECD, Refocusing Vocational Training course subsidy list, Melbourne, 2012)
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 9
Student access
Changes have also been made to student eligibility
and ayment oons. Young eole in state care, or
exing it, will now be eligible for zero fee traininglaces. Concession card holders will no longer
ay a xed concession fee; instead they will ay
a concessional rate of 20 er cent of their course
fees, for courses u to Cercate IV. (Diloma and
advanced diloma courses are suorted by income
loans through the federal FEE-HELP system.)
The revious racce of roviding a 1.3 loading
(mullied by the er hour course subsidy rate) for
any young erson under 20 who did not have a Year12 qualicaon has now been ghtened. It will only
aly to under-20s without a Year 12 qualicaon
who are also dened as being from low socio-
economic status (SES) backgrounds. The 1.5 loading
for Indigenous students will be retained, and there will
be a 1.05 loading for roviders delivering training to
regional areas.5
Analysing the changes
A new online one-sto-sho will be rovided for
students to assist them to choose courses and
roviders thus having them vote with their feet. A
market monitoring unit will be established to watch
for cases of uncomeve ricing.
Industry leaders will be invited to rovide feedback
about crical skills, training and market resonses
through an Industry Skills Consultave Commiee to
be aointed by the Minister for Higher Educaon
and Skills. Addional informaon will be gathered
by the Market Facilitaon and Informaon Division
of the Deartment of Educaon and Early Childhood
Develoment (DEECD) and secialist industry
consultaon teams.
Teams will artner with relevant government
deartments to address issues that need joint acon
(for examle, health and human services). Registered
training organisaons (RTOs) will be required to
rovide beer data, in artnershi with Naonal
Centre for Vocaonal Educaon Research (NCVER), to
make it as useful as ossible to industry, emloyers
and students.6
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10 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Why consider young people?
An ageing population
Australias oulaon will age signicantly over the
next 40 years, with one in four Australians aged over65 years by 2045. Workforce arciaon is rojected
to decline from 63.5 er cent (2003-4) to 56.3 er cent
(2044-45), with a corresonding decline in economic
growth, while sending on health and aged care will
rise signicantly.7
Participation of young people
While the majority of young eole in Victoria are
fully engaged in educaon or emloyment, signicant
numbers connue to struggle. In 2012:
12.4 er cent of Victorians aged 15-19 were not
engaged in full-me emloyment or educaon,
with the rate higher for young women than men
12.1 er cent of Victorian school leavers were
unemloyed or had withdrawn from the labour
market
of the 15-19 year olds who were notin full-meeducaon, only 45.7 er cent were working full
me
rates of art-me work and withdrawal from
the labour market were higher for young
women than young men
the rate of unemloyment and withdrawal from
the labour market rises the earlier the young
erson leaves secondary school
the unemloyment rate for Victorians aged
under 25 aears to be around twice that forover-25s.8
Victorias future roserity and caacity to aord
increased health costs will rely on increasing bothlabour force arciaon and roducvity.
A signicant rooron of young eole need further
suort to engage roducvely with the labour
market. Failing to do so, as an ageing oulaon
redicts an economic slow-down, could have serious
long-term nancial and ersonal costs.
A strong and well-suorted VET sector can lay a vital
role in meeng this challenge, arcularly for students
with a vocaonal assion, who come from backgrounds
of socio-economic disadvantage, or who want or need
an alternave to academic schooling. VET can reare
them for the worklace, connect emloyers and future
workers, and boost literacy, numeracy and generalist
skills. VET in Schools (VETiS) has been eecve in
retaining students in schools who would otherwise be
at risk of leaving early, and encouraging students who
are not headed for university to consider other oons
for study and work.9
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 11
57%
43%
Students aged 25 and over Students aged under 25
Implications for young people
Given rates and levels of arciaon and subject
choices, it seems likely that changes to VET subsidy
levels will have a disrooronate imact uon young
eole. When couled with the new concession rates
and the ghtening of loading allocaon for the under-
20s, there is a strong risk that most young eolestudying VET will face signicant cost increases and/or
reduced availability of their referred courses.
For young eole sll in secondary school, the
changes to subsidy banding will not directly aect
VET in Schools (VETiS). However, it seems likely that
subsidy changes will aect the caacity of instutes to
deliver training in schools and the funding caacity of
schools. Students may also queson the value of VETiS
if future athways into VET are limited.
Rates of participation
Young eole make u a signicant rooron 43
er cent of the VET student body in Victoria: 18.6
er cent of Year 12 graduates surveyed in 2011 went
on to comlete Cercates I-IV, and the rates were
slightly higher for young eole who le schoolwithout nishing Year 12.10While VETiS is increasingly
oular with secondary students, most young students
undertake VET out of mainstream school sengs.11
To ensure Victoria has the workforce it needs in future
and to allow young eole to make the most of their
lives, monitoring bodies that are set u to examine the
imacts of the recent changes to the VET sector must
address the secic eects on young eole.
See Recommendation 1
Percentage of Victorian VETstudents, by age(NCVER, Atlas of Australian Public VET,
Victorian data set, 2011)
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12 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
1%
2%
10%
16%
17%
11%
19%
24%
0%
65 years and over 60-64 years
50-59 years 40-49 years
30-39 years 25-29 years
20-24 years 15-19 years
14 years and under
123,700
46,500
0 40,000 80,000 120,000
VET students aged 15-19
(overall)
VET students aged 15-19
undertaking VET inSchools
l ll
l
Number of Victorian VET students aged 15-19 years(2010)
Percentage of Victorian VETstudents, by age(NCVER, Atlas of Australian Public VET,
Victorian data set, 2011)
Number of Victorian VET studentsaged 1519 years (2010)(NCVER, Australian Vocational Education and
Training Statistics: VET in Schools 2010,Table 1:
Number of VET in Schools Students and 15-19 year
old VET students, Victoria, 2006-2010)
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 13
Level of participation
The majority of VET students aged under 25 were
enrolled at a Cercate I-III level in 2011, comared
to a minority of over 25s, and young eole wereless likely than their older eers to be enrolled at
a Cercate IV or Diloma level.12 While students
may roceed to a higher level course later in life,
the emloyment rosects for those who do not
can be oor. In Victorias raidly changing economy,
emloyees are increasingly exected to have higher
levels of qualicaon and exible and adatable skills. 39.8
43
65
0 50 100
Students aged 45-64 years
Students aged 25 - 44 years
Students aged under 25
years
%
% of students in these age groups undertaking
Cer@ficate I - III
12.3
15.5
9.9
20.6
21.5
12.8
23.7
28
39.9
11.6
11.1
21.8
4.5
3.9
3.3
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Students aged 45-65 years
Students aged 25-44 years
Students aged under 25 years
%
Cer:ficate I Cer:ficate II Cer:ficate III Cer:ficate IV Diploma
Students undertaking Certicate I III(NCVER, Australian Vocational Education and Training
Statistics: Students and Courses 2011,Victorian data set)
Victorian VET students, by age group and study level(NCVER, Australian Vocational Education and Training Statistics: Students and Courses 2011, Victorian data set)
40
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14 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Study pathways
Young eole are more likely than their older
eers to be studying in a number of the areas now
vulnerable to lower subsidies, such as food services,
administraon and suort services, nancial andinsurance services, and sorts and recreaon.13
For a number of reasons, young eole may not make
the best decisions about study and work oons,
which can ut them at risk later. VET raconers
have exressed concern that many secondary students
interested in ursuing VET are oorly informed about
labour market condions, work athways, and how
much vocaonal study they will need to forge a viable
career.14 Many students and arents seem under the
imression that school-based qualicaons will beenough to guarantee secure emloyment aer Year
12, which is rarely the case.15
7.1
9
15.8
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Students aged 45-64 years
Students aged 25-44 years
Students aged under 25 years
%
% of students in each age group undertaking VET in food, hospitality and personal services
Young eole who are unable to achieve meaningful
qualicaons or training are at risk of oor economic,
social and family outcomes, and lost oortunies to
contribute to the wider community.
See Recommendation 6
Students undertaking a VET qualication in food, hospitality andpersonal services(NCVER, Australian Vocational Education and Training Statistics: Students and Courses 2011,
Victorian data set)
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 15
Places of study
The recent changes to Victorian VET have been
exlained as a resonse to the large and unsustainable
growth of the sector. However that resonse should
ay aenon to regional dierences, and not treat
metroolitan exeriences as the norm.
Data released by Skills Victoria showed that while
enrolments at rivate roviders increased in all
regions between 2008-2011 (excet in Gisland),
the rate of growth was slower in all non-metroolitan
regions, excet Barwon. The majority of enrolments
in rivate Registered Training Organisaons (RTOs) in
Victoria are metroolitan-based.16
See Recommendation 1
81%
19%
ll
Melbourne regions Regions outside of Melbourne
13.1
10.5
7.4
11.1
19.8
15
16.6
21.6
17.4
31.6
49.7
59
33
12.3
18.2
39.7
37.4
29.6
55.3
39.7
33.6
55.9
67.9
66.8
43.7
41.1
53
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Northern Metro
Southern Metro
Western Metro
Eastern Metro
Gippsland
Hume
Loddon Mallee
Grampians
Barwon South West
%
lll
TAFE Private ACE
Government funded enrolments atprivate RTOs in Victoria(Skills Victoria, Victorian Training Market Quarterly
Report Q1, 2012, p.26)
Enrolments per region at dierent provider types(Skills Victoria, DEECD, Victorian Training Market Quarterly Report, Q1 2012, Melbourne, 2012, p.26)
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16 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Vulnerable groups
A number of grous of eole already face arcular
risk of disadvantage within the VET system. They
include:
students with low levels of literacy and numeracy
Indigenous eole
women
students who live in rural, regional or remote
areas, or communies with high concentraon of
socio-economic disadvantage
students living on low incomes
students living with a disability or mental illness
students in the criminal jusce system
students from non-English-seakingbackgrounds, esecially recently arrived refugees
early school leavers
students who lack adequate transort
students who have had unsasfactory
exeriences of educaon in the ast, or who lack
social or cultural connecon to TAFE sta
students who lack a suorve home
environment, or who are the rst members
of their family to undertake ost-comulsory
educaon
young people aged 15 or younger who are
excluded or disengaged from school but are
too young to access the usual alternaves of
arenceshis, traineeshis and other ost-
school rograms.17
The biggest roblems faced by young students aged
15-19 concern housing, nancial suort, drugs and
alcohol, jusce and legal issues, and hysical and
mental health.18To address these issues, engagement
between TAFEs and outside suort bodies has been
found to be very imortant however, levels ofinstuonal suort for inclusiveness strategies were
found to vary a great deal between TAFEs.19
Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are also
more likely to exerience literacy and numeracy
dicules. Currently VET funcons as a athway for
many eole whose learning dicules were notdealt with adequately in schools.20It is therefore
unsurrising that students from disadvantaged
socio-economic backgrounds have tended to be
over-reresented in junior level VET qualicaons
such as Cercate I-II, and under-reresented at
diloma level and higher. There are also indicaons
that young eole facing the very highest degrees
of disadvantage have trouble accessing VET even at
junior levels.21
It may be assumed that rivate roviders, lacking the
base funding that TAFEs used to aract, are less likely
on the whole to rovide strong suort for equity
aroaches. Here, the work of community brokerage
bodies can be esecially signicant, as this reort
demonstrates in later chaters.
See Recommendations 2, 3 and 4
Victorias Local Learning and EmloymentNetworks (LLENs) have observed that around 50
er cent of VET in Schools subjects chosen by
Aboriginal students between 2007-11 have fallen
into areas that will now be subsidised at the lowest
two band levels, in recreaon, retail, hositality
and business services. This raises concerns about
the future cost to schools using VETiS to maintain
engagement with Indigenous students, the costs
to students undertaking similar study outside
of schools, and/or the otenal loss of these
athways to re-engagement.
Goulburn Murray LLEN, Potenal Imact of
Vocaonal Training Reforms on Schools, 2012; North
Central LLEN, Refocusing VET, 2012
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 17
It is imortant that students facing disadvantage
do not become stuck in cycles of junior level study
without strong career rosects at the end. However,
this does not mean that junior courses should simly
be reduced in favour of Cercate IV and above.
Cercate I-II rograms, if well delivered, can lay
an imortant role in engaging individuals who have
been marginalised from school and emloyment, and
who may not have the skills or caacity to study at a
more senior level. When delivered eecvely, junior
qualicaons may lead to higher level study later.
Furthermore, for students facing serious disadvantage,
re-engagement with educaon and imroved quality
of life can be osive outcomes in themselves.22
In light of this, there is concern about the decision
to reduce subsidies for many junior courses. When
couled with the removal of cas for concession fees,
this seems likely to have disrooronately negave
eects on Victorias most disadvantaged students.
Monitoring the imact of the changes rovides an
imortant oortunity to re-evaluate how student
disadvantage is dened, and how best to suort
vulnerable students. The monitoring should also
secically assess the imact of the changes on
vulnerable grous and lead to a commitment to
address any subsequent inequity.
See Recommendation 1
5
14.6
1.5
16.1
12.6
3.8
16.8
8.6
31.3
3.7
22.9
6.5
5.4
3.3
8.4
4.7
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Non-indigenous early school leavers
Non-indigenous Year 12 completers
Indigenous early school leavers
Indigenous Year 12 completers
%
Traineeship ApprenEceship CerEficate I-III CerEficate IV
Victorian Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people undertakingvocational study and training(DEECD, State of Victorias Children 2009: Aboriginal Children and Young People in Victoria, Melbourne,
2010, p.247)
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18 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Implications for rural and regional Victoria
Changes to VET have arcular relevance to rural and
regional communies in Victoria because of:
the signicant utake of VET in rural and
regional areas
the higher levels of disadvantage faced by rural
and regional VET students
the dierent forms VET can take in rural and
regional areas, and
limited rural and regional access to VET oons.
Utake of VETiS is arcularly high in rural and regional
Victoria, with over 40 er cent of VETiS students, living
outside of major cies. Around 34 er cent of general
VET students live in rural or regional areas.23
Meanwhile, some VET students relocate in order
to study, so changes to metroolitan VET rovision
are also likely to aect rural and regional students.
A longitudinal survey of Year 12 comleters who
deferred an oer of higher study noted that
aroximately 60 er cent of the non-metroolitan
students who later went on to aend a VET instute
did so at a metroolitan camus.24
Comared to their metroolitan eers, rural and
regional students tend to go into VET with lower
levels of revious qualicaons, including being more
likely to reort Year 9 or 10 as their highest reviousqualicaon.25As around 208,430 Victorian VET
students do not live in Melbourne, the concerns of the
rural and regional sector warrant closer consideraon.26
0%
3%
0% 0%
7%
27%
63%
Not known Overseas Very remote
Remote Outer regional Inner regional
Major ci@es
Victorian VET enrolments -% by student residential address(NCVER, Australian Vocational Education and Training
Statistics: Students and Courses 2011,Victorian data set)
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 19
Rural disadvantage
Disadvantage in relaon to VET is, in art, a
geograhical issue. Rural and regional young eole
and their families face a greater risk of nancialdisadvantage than their metroolitan eers, and are
less likely to be able to aord high educaonal costs.
The median weekly income for families with adolescent
children (both dual- and single-arent families) is lower
in rural Victoria than the state average.27
The Australian Bureau of Stascs Socio-Economic
Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) idenes comarave
levels of advantage and disadvantage in relaon
to factors such as income, educaonal aainment,
emloyment levels, and roorons of workforce in
relavely unskilled occuaons. Out of Victorias 79
local government areas, 14 of the LGAs ranked in the
boom 20 are rural or regional.28
Fewer rural and regional Year 12 graduates go on to study
at university than their metroolitan eers and more will
defer a university, TAFE or other higher educaon oer 15.5 er cent, comared to 8.4 er cent. This decision is
commonly made for nancial reasons.29
Whether they are studying in a metroolitan or
regional centre, or a rural locaon, transort is oen
highlighted as an obstacle for rural and regional
students, esecially those aged under 18.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Bachelor degree
Cert IV+
Cert IIII
Appren
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20 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Proportions of Victorian VET studentsper district, by highest previousqualication level(NCVER, Atlas of Australian Public VET, 2011. Excludes
VET in Schools where delivery is undertaken by schools.)
10.6 12.8 10.3 11.9 13.2 8.6 10.4 9.8 15.2 11.3 8
17.5
19.8
17.316.8
18.3
14.516.5 16
16.8
17.2
12.8
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Cent
ralH
ighlands
Mallee
Loddon
Wimme
ra
Goulbu
rn
Barwon
Wes
tern
District
Gippsla
nd
East
Gippsla
nd
Oven
sMurr
ay
Melb
ourne
%
l l l
l l ll l
l
Year 9 or lower Year 10
Rural and regional communies also tend to return
oorer than average educaon results during the
school years, including:
lower results for reading, wring and numeracy
in years 5, 7 and 9
lower rates of retenon of Year 10 studentsthrough to Year 12
fewer 19 year olds who have comleted Year 12
or equivalent.
Addionally, young eole in rural and regional
areas are less likely than the state average to have
arents with Year 12 or equivalent qualicaons
increasing the young ersons own likelihood of oor
educaonal outcomes.30
76.6
70.472.1
74.9
70.7
79.8
64666870727476788082
BarwonSouth-West
Gippsland
Grampians
Hume
LoddonMallee
Victoria(average)
%
l l
Young people aged 19 years who had completed Year
12 or equivalent in 2009
Victorians aged 19 years who hadcompleted Year 12 or equivalentin 2009(DEECD, Community Adolescent Prole Series, 2010)
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 21
Young eole living in rural and regional areas are
also more likely than metroolitan young eole to go
from secondary school straight into arenceshis,
traineeshis or emloyment.31However, there is
an imortant gender dierence, with rural young
men more likely to roceed into full-me work and
rural young women into art-me work. Young menare far more likely to take u an arenceshi;
young women, a traineeshi. Unemloyment is a
disrooronate risk for rural and regional Year 12
graduates of both sexes, and the risk is greater for
young eole who did not comlete Year 12.32In
view of the higher risk of unemloyment, vocaonal
athways are esecially imortant for young eole in
rural and regional areas, and young women in these
communies are disrooronately likely to go into
VET at junior Cercate levels.
Thus, the imact of recent subsidy changes will vary in
dierent arts of Victoria. Increased subsidies for VET
at arenceshi levels may have arcular benets
for some rural students, but rural students may also
exerience the reducons to junior qualicaon
courses as esecially harmful.
See Recommendations 1 and 5
17.5 18.619.5 19.4 19.5
15.2
46.6 47.6 47.2 47.2 47.8
41.3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Barw
onSouth-W
est
Gipp
sland
Gram
pians
Hume
Lodd
onMallee
Victo
ria
%
l l
Dual-parent families where both parents had not
aIained Year 12 or equivalent
Single-parent families where parent had not aIained
Year 12 or e uivalent
Families of adolescent children inVictorian where parents had notattained Year 12 or equivalent(DEECD, Community Adolescent Prole Series, 2010)
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22 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Regional impacts
The full imacts of the recent changes to VET will not
become clear for several months, at least. However,
changes aarent to date have already caused
consternaon. These changes include:
Gisland TAFE: 80 er cent of its courses
aected, at least 20 rograms cut, and student
fees redicted to rise signicantly Advance TAFE (also in Gisland): exects to
hase out 36 courses, as well as eight of its
camuses, outreach centres and oces in
Yarram, Heyeld, Orbost, Swis Creek and
Mallacoota, and its training restaurant in Sale33
Bendigo TAFE: closed its Kyneton camus and
redicted the loss of 39 courses34
The Wodonga Instute of TAFE: redicted 50
courses will go35
Sunraysia TAFE: does not exect to drocourses, but 26 osions will be lost, delivery
methods will change and artnershis may have
to be formed with other roviders.36
More generally, concerns have been raised as to
how TAFEs, with their base funding removed, will be
able to rovide addional services such as libraries,
student suort and childcare. In rural areas, other
suort oons are oen more limited.37
Further aenon should also be aid to how workforce
demand varies in dierent regional markets. Forexamle, statewide Victorian enrolments in hositality
and related courses exceed the demand for emloyees.
However, some regional areas such as Bass Coast
and East Gisland deend heavily on the tourism
industry, with local small businesses relying on the
VET sector for young trained emloyees. It is unclear
how VET reform aligns, at resent, with the regional
strategic and growth lans which have been develoed
through collaboraons between Victorian state and
local authories, industry and community grous, and
which outline riories for commerce, emloyment,industry and infrastructure in regional communies.
0.9
3.3
9.8
5.4
2.6
1.1
4.7
15.2
0.9
4.3
8.4
6.1
1.7
8.2
3.7
16.5
0.8
4.6
18.4
9.5
7.7
2.1
6.1
10.1
0.5
5.4
14.4
15
4.6
14.4
3.6
9.5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
NILFET
Looking for work
Part >me work
Full >me work
Traineeship
Appren>ceship
Cer>ficate I-III
Cer>ficate IV
%
% of rural / regional male pathways % of rural / regional female pathways
% of metro male pathways % of metro female pathways
Pathways for Victorian Year 12 leavers, excluding Bachelor degreesDEECD, On Track data (2011)
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 23
Implications for young women
Parcular concerns have been raised about gender
equity in VET. The vocaonal educaon sector has
a long history of female and male students being
concentrated in dierent courses, with many women
studying in areas that are more likely to lead to casual
and oorly aid jobs. Young women in rural Victoriawho do not go to university are disrooronately
vulnerable to oor nancial outcomes, and there is
a danger that the recent changes to the Victorian
system will make the situaon worse.
It is imortant that the gendered imacts of the VET
changes are monitored and any resulng inequalies
addressed.
Given the rising exectaons about young eoles
qualicaons when entering the workforce, and the
fact that VET roviders receive considerable ublic
funding, it is imortant to ensure the VET sector is
accessible to all.
See Recommendations 7, 8 and 9
Gender disadvantageYoung Australian women who leave school before
comleng Year 12 are less likely than young men to
be fully engaged in training, educaon or work in their
rst year aer leaving school.38Young women in rural
and regional Victoria are arcularly at risk.
The reducon in VET subsidies for courses oerang
at a Cercate I-III level is likely to aect young eole
dierently according to gender and region.
Amongst early school leavers, the utake of
arenceshis is clearly dierenated along gender
lines, with young men (esecially in rural and regional
areas) far more likely than young women to take u
this oon. Meanwhile, young women who leave
school without comleng Year 12 are more likely than
young men to go into traineeshis, again arcularly if
they live in rural and regional Victoria. Young women
in rural and regional areas who leave school early are
arcularly likely to work art me work and more
likely than young men to be out of work.39
Young women in rural and regional Victoria who do
not have a Year 12 qualicaon are less likely than
metroolitan young women (though more likely than
young men in rural and regional areas) to undertake
Cercate IV, and more likely to undertake Cercate
I-III. As the new subsidy system tends to increase
suort to arenceshi-level study, while decreasing
it to many lower level Cercate courses, it seems that
young women in rural and regional Victoria are more
likely than other cohorts (including their local maleeers) to be disadvantaged by the VET changes.
This disadvantage is likely to be exacerbated by
gender disarity in students subject choices. Most
industry sectors show a signicant gender imbalance
in their VET enrolments (see tables following). This
is roblemac in itself, but it also means that lower
subsidies for arcular course areas for examle,
commerce and hositality will aect female and
male students dierently.
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24 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
8.6
19.5
16.4
10.3
7.6
8.9
17.6
11.2
2.8
16.4
10.8
11.9
2.9
36.7
12.7
5.8
5.9
17.4
18.4
9.8
9.1
11.6
20.6
7.3
2.3
12.6
8.6
12.6
5.2
47.9
7
3.7
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
NILFET
Looking for work
Part >me work
Full >me work
Traineeship
Appren>ceship
Cer>ficate I-III
Cer>ficate IV
%
% of rural / regional
male pathways
% of rural / regional
female pathways
% of metro male
pathways
% of metro female
pathways
0.2
1.4
29
12.9
5.8
4.7
2.1
16.6
6.9
2.2
8.3
7.6
2.3
0.5
0.6
4.2
1
1.9
8.5
3
29.8
17.1
3.2
15
9
6.1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Natural and physical sciences
Informa@on technology
Engineering and related technologies
Architecture and building
Agriculture, environmental and related
Health
Educa@on
Management and commerce
Society and culture
Crea@ve arts
Food, hospitality and personal services
Mixed field programs
Subject only - no field of educa@on
%
% of female VET
enrolments
% of male VET
enrolments
Pathways for early school leavers in VictoriaDEECD, On Trackdata(2011)
Victorian VET subject areas female and male choices(NCVER, Australian Vocational Education and Training Statistics: Students and Courses 2011,Victorian data set.
No age breakdown supplied.)
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 25
The Goulburn Murray LLEN has noted that four
of the to six VETiS oons chosen by Victorian
female students are in areas likely to be adversely
aected by subsidy changes. Three of the to six
oons chosen by male students are likely to be
adversely aected.Goulburn Murray LLEN, Potenal Imact of
Vocaonal Training Reforms on Schools, 2012. See
also North Central LLEN, Refocusing VET, 2012
These disaries must be addressed. It cannot
be assumed that female students will adjust their
choices according to industry demand and subsidy
levels recent industry shortages in male-dominated
trades have not been met by a corresonding utake
by women to meet this need.40
A gender blind aroach cannot work while young
women connue to be encouraged by teachers,
eers, family and the media into industries which
oer low wages and casual condions. Studies
indicate that girls on VET athways tend to choose
tradionally feminised rofessions on grounds of
what they know themselves to be good at and what
they are interested in, while oen being erilously
ignorant about ay, job availability, condions and
career aths.41Levels of discriminaon in worklaceand training sengs also revent female students
from moving into non-tradional trade areas.42
While more research is needed, factors which
contribute to women moving successfully into manual
trades that have been tradionally dominated by men
can include:
suort from emloyers through acve equal
oortunies olicies re-arenceshi courses focused on basic
skills and condence building
qualicaons oered through VET instutes
(not just through industry emloyers) which
then enable women to set u indeendently in
the trades
training structures which emloy at least one
female trainer er course
clustering female recruits together for suort.43
The refocusing of VET rovides an oortunity to
review the dierent outcomes of vocaonal study
for young men and women, and to reduce any gas
between them.
See Recommendations 7, 8 and 9
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26 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
How to create a strong future workforce
The Victorian Government has an imortant role to
lay addressing roducvity and building athways to
young eoles emloyment.
Already some new ossibilies for the VET sector are
being develoed at an instuonal level. One model
has begun to emerge via the new Menzies Alliance
between the University of Ballarat and the six TAFE
colleges in Bendigo, Ballarat, Sunraysia, Wodonga,
and Gisland (which together cover 80 er cent
of regional TAFE delivery.) They are roosing close
collaboraon, assisted with $25.8 million in funding
from the Commonwealth Government to assist
students in regional Victoria to obtain degrees.44
Further details have yet to be announced.
Addional ossibilies have been suggested by
the Victorian Governments $20 million RegionalPartnershis Facilitaon Fund, which is intended
to romote alliances between higher educaon
instuons and VET organisaons, to suort a
beer range of higher educaon rograms in regional
Victoria, with the aim of enabling more students to
study locally.45
The Victorian Government also needs to secically
address the challenge of creang athways to
emloyment for young eole who are at risk of
disengagement. The current aroach of a subsidy
loading, while valuable, will not be adequate to drive
the reforms and iniaves necessary to markedlyincrease workforce arciaon and skill levels among
this cohort.
Here, there are four key areas for acon:
data collecon and analysis
resources to deliver equity outcomes
reform to address gender inequity
targeed rovision of informaon for young
eole, families and educators.
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 27
Data collection and analysis
Monitoring systems to measure the rogress of the VET
sector in Victoria should recognise young eole as a
crical grou likely to be aected by the recent changes,who engage with VET in arcular ways, and who are
more vulnerable to various forms of disadvantage.
Monitoring bodies should work with relevant
government deartments to measure changes in
relaon to young eole in:
enrolment numbers
retenon and comleon rates
chosen subject areas
Cercate levels
locaons of study, including how many are
leaving their original communies
deferment rates.
Data should be disaggregated according to gender,
region, socio-economic status, disability, and
Indigenous or CALD background.
At resent, the Victorian Training Market Reorts
contain valuable data about enrolments and
comleons for students according to Indigenous,CALD and disability status (age grous not secied),
as well as general student enrolment numbers by age
grou, enrolments for 15-19 year olds who have not
comleted a Year 12 qualicaon, and enrolments by
rovider tye and region. This informaon could be
enhanced by:
disaggregang the data according to gender
roviding more informaon about outcomes
for students undertaking VETiS (or comaring
outcomes for 15-19 year old studentsundertaking VET inside and outside of
mainstream secondary schools)
including further informaon about retenon,
comleons and subsequent emloyment
outcomes, esecially if these could be broken
down according to region
secifying targets for VET aainment for
students who are at risk of disadvantage,
and measuring how well these are being
met. (These might be adated from the KPIs
concerning aainment rates set out in Victoriasimlementaon lan for the Naonal Youth
Partnershi Requirement.)
1Directly measure the impact of VET reform on young people, parcularly those who
are already at a disadvantage, by disaggregang VET outcomes and employment
pathways data according to age, gender, region, socio-economic status, disability,
and Indigenous or CALD background. Aenon should also be paid to the progress
of young people studying through VETiS. Key performance indicators for VETaainment should be specied, and progress made publically available.
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28 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Resources to deliver equity outcomes
In recognion of the negave imact that youth
unemloyment has on individuals, the community
and the economy, it is crucial to ensure young eole
at risk of disengagement are well suorted to access
VET and rogress into a career.
Historically, resources have been indirectly invested
in equity rograms through base funding rovided
to TAFEs. While this enabled imortant services,
such as counselling and childcare to be delivered in
many locaons, it did not ensure the allocaon of a
consistent rooron of these resources to equity,
that imortant services were consistently available, or
that they were uniformly of a high quality.
A more targeted aroach directly resourcing the
desired equity outcomes for young eole at riskof disengaging or who have disengaged would
inevitably be a more ecient and eecve use of
limited resources.
This could be achieved by the creaon of a comeve
VET equity engagement fund that resourced
rograms that met best racce guidelines for
achieving outcomes with at risk students. By creang
a tender rocess oen to both rivate and ublic
VET roviders, as well as youth service delivery
organisaons and artnershi brokers such as the Local
Learning and Emloyment Networks, the fund wouldfoster innovaon, collaboraon and artnershis, as
well as best racce.
Common sense mechanisms could be built into the
rocess to reward success, such as only awarding
second round tenders to organisaons or consorums
that successfully delivered athways to disadvantaged
young eole.
Indicators of successful delivery might include
imrovements in:
VET arciaon by those reviously
disengaged from formal learning
arciaon in VET at higher qualicaon levels
(Cercate III and above)
comleon rates
transions to sustainable work
transions to higher-level learning quality of life, self condence, and community
arciaon
reduced rates of arrest / imrisonment
literacy, numeracy, English and roblem-solving
skills
arciaon by students in rogram design,
delivery and evaluaon.
KPIs could also be adated from many of the Elements
of Quality Programs listed by DEECD in relaon to re-engagement rograms for school students.46
2Create a compeve VET equity engagement fund to resource programs that can
demonstrate they will achieve outcomes with at risk students.
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 29
The value of exisng rograms that suort linkages
between students, training roviders, schools,
businesses and community suort services should
also be retained.
3Resource local partnership creaon by invesng in exisng local brokerage bodies
(such as Local Learning and Employment Networks) that foster strong relaonships
between students, training providers, schools, businesses and community support
services.
Beer outcomes could be achieved through beer
coordinaon of exisng educaon and suort
services. Valuable work is already underway to trialaroaches that will strengthen more integrated
service delivery through the Youth Partnershis ilots.
However, decisions will need to be made to embed
these learnings into Victorias governance and service
lanning architecture. Note: YACVic and VCOSS will
ublish a reort addressing these issues in 2013.
4
Develop governance and decision processes that are focussed on achieving beer
outcomes from investment in both government and non-government educaon
and support services for young people.
For many young eole, arcularly in rural and regional
Victoria, being unable to get to VET rograms resents
a serious imediment to arciaon. Even school age
young eole arciang in VET are denied access to
school buses.
5Improve transport access to VET programs, parcularly in rural and regional
Victoria, including by requiring school buses to transport VET students.
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30 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Provision of information
Young eole, their arents and teachers should be
rovided with beer, u-to-date informaon about
VET and career oons, including by augmenng theVictorian Governments forthcoming one sto sho
website with further, face-to-face oons, such as
Try a Trade days, taster rograms, Young Trade
Ambassadors rograms, career exos, and targeted
informaon sessions. Regional Careers Develoment
Ocers, who already work with schools and VET
roviders to drive system imrovement, could lay an
imortant role in suorng these develoments at a
local level.
Toics to be addressed should include: the eects of recent subsidy changes
qualicaons required for dierent careers
the need for rofessional develoment during
ones working life
ay, condions, and likelihood of full-me, art-
me and casual work in dierent industries
oortunies in new and emerging industries
(such as green industries)
suerannuaon and rerement savings where to go for suort when things go wrong
at work, including dealing with bullying and
harassment.
Informaon should be targeted to those students who
tend to engage with VET at more junior levels (or on
more recarious athways), including young women,students from low socio-economic backgrounds,
Indigenous students, and those disengaged from
convenonal schooling.
6Provide young people, their parents and teachers with increased, up-to-date
informaon about VET and career opons, and more taster opportunies to help
them make informed choices.
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 31
Reform to address gender inequity
The drivers of the dierences in young women and
young mens engagement in VET are comlex and
will require systemic reform and cultural change, inaddion to secic rograms to engage young women
in non-tradional industry areas, to achieve change.
7
8
9
Include representaves with experse in gender equity on VET monitoring and
advisory bodies.
Promote new and emerging industries (such as green industries) as career opons
for young women.
Invest in VET programs and iniaves which eecvely engage and retain
female students in non-tradional industry areas (parcularly where there is a
demonstrated skill shortage); successfully promote acve equal opportunies
approaches to local businesses; and celebrate gender equity achievements.
New and emerging industries (such as green
industries) should be romoted as career oons for
young women, to ensure they do not quickly becomestereotyed as male industries (as was the case, for
examle, with the informaon and communicaon
technology (ICT) sector in the 1990s).
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32 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Recommendations
Data collection and analysis
1Directly measure the impact of VET reform on young people, parcularly those who
are already at a disadvantage, by disaggregang VET outcomes and employmentpathways data according to age, gender, region, socio-economic status, disability,
and Indigenous or CALD background. Aenon should also be paid to the progress
of young people studying through VETiS. Key performance indicators for VET
aainment should be specied, and progress made publically available.
Resources to deliver equity outcomes
2
3
4
5
Create a compeve VET equity engagement fund to resource programs that can
demonstrate they will achieve outcomes with at risk students.
Resource local partnership creaon by invesng in exisng local brokerage bodies
(such as Local Learning and Employment Networks) that foster strong relaonships
between students, training providers, schools, businesses and community support
services.
Develop governance and decision processes that are focussed on achieving beeroutcomes from investment in both government and non-government educaon
and support services for young people.
Improve transport access to VET programs, parcularly in rural and regional
Victoria, including by requiring school buses to transport VET students.
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 33
Provision of information
6Provide young people, their parents and teachers with increased, up-to-date
informaon about VET and career opons, and more taster opportunies to helpthem make informed choices.
Reform to address gender inequity
7
8
9
Include representaves with experse in gender equity on VET monitoring andadvisory bodies.
Promote new and emerging industries (such as green industries) as career opons
for young women.
Invest in VET programs and iniaves which:
eecvely engage and retain female students in non-tradional industry areas
(parcularly where there is a demonstrated skill shortage)
successfully promote acve equal opportunies approaches to local businesses,andcelebrategender equity achievements.
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34 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Examples of VET provision in rural and regionalVictoria for young people facing disadvantage
UB Tec (University of Ballarat, Technical Education Centre)
UB Tec rovides an alternave for senior secondary
students in Ballarat, oering accredited hands-ontraining for young eole aged 15-19 in a suortedadult learning environment. In 2012, 154 students wereenrolled, with a balanced gender rao. Study oonsinclude:
Cercate I and II in General Educaon forAdults, which develos literacy, numeracy andgeneralist skills, lus Cercate I in VocaonalPrearaon,
Victorian Cercate of Alied Learning (VCAL) atan Intermediate level, with a Cercate II or III in
an area such as automove, media, communityservices, lumbing, hair and beauty, construcon,hositality, health, or engineering.
Senior level VCAL, with the oon of comlenganother Cercate II or III.
While VET in Schools is oular with secondary studentsin Ballarat, UB Tec grew out of the need to oer analternave in a TAFE seng. Early school leavinghas been recognised as a arcular concern in theGramians, esecially at a Year 10 level. While manystudents who enrol at UB Tec are already enthusiasc
about learning a trade, it is common for them to reortthat they did not enjoy convenonal schooling. The mostcommon reason students give for choosing UB Tec is awish to get a job soon.
When asked what they like about studying at UB Tec,students tend to highlight good relaonshis withteachers and an atmoshere of exibility and resect,as well as work undertaken at a level with which theycan coe. The forms of suort rovided range froma Wednesday Breakfast Club, to increase studentsknowledge of nutrion, to a ilot rogram for young
eole from out-of-home care. The ndings of thisilot are being comiled into a good racce guide,due for release soon. Key issues include the needof these students for small class sizes (10 at most),and for teachers trained to deal with the imacts ofchildhood trauma.
When working with students facing disadvantage, it is
imortant to recognise small stes towards rogress,and to acknowledge that school is not the rst riorityfor a young erson struggling to nd safe, securehousing or deal with turmoil at home. They need tobe able to learn in an environment that is stable andsuorve, and where they can maintain consistentrelaonshis with sta (keeing in mind that many oftheir relaonshis with adults in the ast have beeneeng or unstable). It is also imortant that stahave enough oortunies to debrief, share exerseand undergo rofessional develoment because theywill be on the front line when issues arise in class,
even though students may be suorted by outsidesocial services. This makes the loss of TAFE basefunding a big concern for this instuon. As of nextyear, UB Tec students may no longer have access toa counselling service, and reduced management andsta hours will mean less ability to manage the imactof ersonal issues on students caacity to engage invocaonal educaon and training.
For regional instutes, transort also resentschallenges. Some students come to UB Tec fromsmaller rural communies like Ballan and Bacchus
Marsh, but most are too young to drive and do nothave guaranteed access to school buses.
Another riority area should be roviding studentswith more diverse vocaonal exeriences. VCALstudents are limited in the number of Cercatecourses in which they can enrol, due to the maximumtraining funded by Government (referred to as thetwo-course rule), and this increases the risk ofdisengagement for those who select an area whichturns out to be unsuitable. New students oen havelile rior exerience of the trades and would benet
from more oortunies for taster courses and earlyexeriences of VET during their schooling.
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 35
The McAuley Champagnat Programme(Notre Dame College), Shepparton
The McAuley Chamagnat Programme (MCP) is an
innovave educaonal rogram oered by Notre
Dame College for secondary-age students in the
Greater Shearton area who are disengaged from
convenonal schooling and whose needs are not
being met by mainstream roviders. This rogram
was develoed in 2006, in artnershi between
the Catholic Educaon Oce of the Sandhurst
Diocese, government and non-government schools,
Salvaon Armys Brayton Youth and Family Services,
Juvenile Jusce, the Victorian Aboriginal EducaonAssociaon Inc and other Indigenous organisaons.
It followed intensive work done by the Goulburn
Murray LLEN and their networks, which idened
the need for a rogram for young eole who were
out of the educaon system (in some cases, since
rimary school) and unable to re-enter due to age or
behavioural records. Strong community artnershis
with services and training roviders have been
imortant to the success of MCP.
At resent, MCP has 62 students, 30 er cent
of whom are Indigenous. Students come to the
rogram with comlex and mulle needs. Common
barriers include learning dicules, behavioural
roblems, severe anxiety, overty, unsafe housing
or homelessness, and a history as vicms of crime,
abuse or neglect. This makes it very dicult for
them to comlete their educaon. MCP has a strong
welfare focus and an emhasis on hands-on and
vocaonal training in small teams.
MCP students undertake cometency based training
within the Cercate of Educaon for Adults.Cercate I-II qualicaons are also undertaken in
areas such as hositality, beauty and hairdressing,
and VCAL is oered where suitable. About a quarter
of students go on to re-enter mainstream schooling;
others move to re-arenceshi rograms,
emloyment, TAFE or VCAL sengs. Many students
nd adult learning environments referable to going
back to a convenonal school; others have graduated
from Year 12 VCAL, and found it a signicant milestone.
Students work in teams of u to a dozen, and learn
strategies to combat deression, self-harm, anger, and
the results of abuse or drug and alcohol use. There is a
strong emhasis on enhancing literacy and numeracy
the vast majority of students are behind their agegrou average with a real-life focus, for examle,
renng a roerty, mobile hone contracts, or
alying for jobs. Students are assisted by a detailed
inducon rocess, individualised exible learning,
suort workers in the classroom, elders visits and
cultural acvies, and a breakfast and lunch rogram.
Hel with transort is also available: a bus service
for students who live in Shearton, and collecon
from the train/bus interchange for those coming from
out of town. Some students travel long distances to
aend, from smaller communies such as Kyabram,
Euroa, Nagambie and Numurka.
The cost of VET delivery is one challenge, as VET-
secic funding is not available for Year 9 students.
Concerns also exist in the community about the future
of VET in general. Local RTOs which oen hel to train
students to become work-ready will be aected by
new funding arrangements in ways that are yet to
become clear. While students on convenonal trade
athways may nd stronger oortunies oening u
for them, for those who are unwilling or unable to go
into a trade (referring, for examle, business or ICT),the future seems uncertain.
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36 VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria
Networks and partnerships, Goulburn Murray region
In communies undergoing signicant social,
environmental and economic change, strong VET
oons and local artnershis can take on arcular
imortance. One such examle is the Goulburn
Murray district, in northern Victoria. Residents of
this region have been dealing with major changes inrecent years, including drought, bushres, industrial
restructuring, and disutes over water sustainability
and biodiversity. Some communies have ageing
oulaons, as young eole move away to larger
centres; others have growing migrant and refugee
communies from Iraqi, Afghani and African
backgrounds. A number of residents are struggling
with roblems to do with the future of local farming,
rising unemloyment, stress and mental health issues
(related to economic changes), the imacts of low
socio-economic status on young eoles asiraons,
and, in the case of many migrant families, comlexies
between arents high hoes for their children and
the challenges of seling in rural Australia.
Under these circumstances, it is arcularly imortant
to ensure all artners in the educaon and training
sectors are communicang and working well together,
and that work is driven by relevant local data and
evidence-based strategic lanning. Partnershis
between schools, industry and community and health
sectors need to be facilitated and suorted; although
keen to take art, the roviders do not have thecaacity to manage the artnershis.
In recent years a signicant art of the work of
brokerage bodies like the Local Learning and
Emloyment Networks (LLEN) has been to facilitate
the growth of VET and VCAL networks. The Goulburn
Murray Local Learning and Emloyment Network
(GMLLEN) has layed an imortant role in its region.
Contribuons have included:
1. Purchasing and romong a good racce
resource: The top 40 guide: 40 engaging career
and life skills acvies for youth. This contains
engaging acvies for students on self-esteem,
resilience, iniave, negoaon, roblemsolving, me management and other toics.
Such suorve resources for VCAL classrooms
have become more imortant aer funding was
cut for VCAL co-ordinators.
2. Develoing a social networking model for
Goulburn Murray VETiS roviders through
Yammer, which enables sta to communicate
and share exerse with a wider network
of colleagues, in a rofessional and rivate
online seng. Such micro-messaging services
are exected to become more revalent inworklaces and can lay a big role in reducing
the isolaon of rural service roviders.
3. Surveying local VCAL reresentaves so that
rofessional develoment and other forms
of suort are targeted and suitable to their
needs.
4. Partnering with universies, TAFES, local
government and schools to run informaon
sessions, roundtables and camus tours for
migrant and refugee families, to make themmore aware of training and terary athways
from VCAL.
5. Suorng a range of local re-engagement and
VET rograms to work beer together.
Through these sorts of iniaves, 640 young eole
were re-engaged in alternave sengs in 2012 (u
from 466 the revious year) and enrolments in VET/
VCAL increased from 524 to 609.
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VET and young eole: a aer by the Youth Aairs Council of Victoria 37
National Centre for Dairy Education Australia,
Terang campus
The Naonal Centre for Dairy Educaon Australia
(NCDEA) was set u as a artnershi between Dairy
Australia (the naonal services body for dairy farmers
and the industry) and GOTAFE, the largest regional
Victorian TAFE, aer Melbourne University withdrew
from vocaonal educaon and training at the end of2005. The NCDEA oerates out of each dairy region
naonally and in Victoria at camuses in Terang,
Shearton, Warragul and Leongatha.
The industry-agreed Farm Career Pathway begins
at and then includes farm hand qualicaons at
Cercate levels II, III and IV, Diloma of Agriculture
(Senior roducon manager/Farm roducon
manager), and Advanced Diloma of Agriculture (Farm
business manager).
Benecial aroaches have included:
1. Providing the training in a secic VET
environment, not only on individual farms.
2. Understanding that VET should plan for a
students whole career and link them to wider
networks and oortunies, not merely training
an emloyee for one job.
3. Providing mentoring oortunies, such as the
DairySAGE rogram, to assist students with
career lanning.
4. Providing bridging rograms such as theInCharge rogram for women, which builds
nancial literacy, leadershi skills and self-
esteem. While such rograms do not deliver
an accredited qualicaon, they can be an
imortant entry oint for students who had not
reviously considered further study.
5. Building a training culture within the
agricultural industry. Further educaon can
seem a daunng commitment for farmers and
emloyees who cannot aord to be o the
farm for long. The VET sector, with its shorter
qualicaons, exibility and oons to move
into Bachelor degrees at a later date, can meet
those concerns.1
School-based arenceshis at Cercate II and
III have tended to aract students from farming
families, who are less interested in terary study.
While agriculture is romoted as a long-term career
of choice, some students at risk of leaving school
early will take u agriculture as an inial form of re-engagement with the educaon system. Students who
enter at a Cert. II level can need arcular suort
and nd it more dicult to access lacements.
Also of concern is the indicaon that VET in Schools will
be cut back because of the VET subsidy changes, as the
costs of rovision may rove too high. Many students
go into agricultural training from a VETiS athway.
Local coordinaon and networking are esecially
imortant to successful VET delivery. Given the need
for cooeraon between students, arents, schools,farmers and RTOs, suorng even small numbers
of students to work eecvely in school-based
arenceshis can be me-consuming and at mes
uncommercial. Here, networks and roviders are
required to be embedded within local communies
for examle, idenfying local young eole
interested in dairy work who might benet from more
encouragement, or suorng informal local networks
of eole who are keen to build u their agricultural
skills, or are already building them but would benet
from links to accredited courses.
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Endnotes
1. Australian Government Producvity Commission, Economic
Implicaons of an Ageing Australia: Producvity Commission,
Research Report, Melbourne, 24 March 2005, .xii, xxiii, 13, 125,143.
2. Naonal Centre for Vocaonal Educaon Research (NCVER),Australian vocaonal educaon and training stascs: Students
and courses 2011, Victorian data set, Commonwealth of Australia,Deartment of Educaon, Emloyment and Worklace Relaons,2012 h://www.ncver.edu.au/ublicaons/2509.html. AlsoDeartment of Educaon and Early Childhood Develoment(DEECD), Refocusing Vocaonal Training in Victoria, Melbourne,2012, .4.
3. DEECD, Refocusing Vocaonal Training in Victoria, .5, 7; KColvin, Young Victorians and the 2012-13 TAFE Reforms, Yikes,vol.11, ed.3, June 2012, .10-11; DEECD, Refocusing vocaonaltraining government subsidies, Melbourne, 2012, and DEECD,Refocusing vocaonal training student fees, Melbourne, 2012,
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4. D