New research on Traineeships in the South West released

The research into the vocational education and training sector in Australia is extensive, highlighting both negative and positive aspects. The purpose of this pilot study was to gauge employer knowledge of traineeships in the South West of Western Australia, in order to understand the rates of utilisation in this geographic context.

​O​verall results showed that most employers had not used traineeships before and had limited knowledge of their use. This under-utilisation represents missed opportunities for growth in several areas, particularly considering the large Government investment into the VET Sector.

​Workforce Education Institute has released a paper​ which investigates traineeships in the South West of Western Australia.

​Regional Workforce Development: Are Traineeships working in the South West?

 identifies four key areas for further discussion​:

1. Employer perceptions, knowledge and implementation of traineeships,
2. ​External management and business size,
3. Chamber of commerce membership and
4. Employer experiences with traineeships.

You can read the full paper here​ (soon)

​An e​​xecutive summary is also available here (soon)

If you would like to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact our office on ​(08) 9754 1844.

National Skills Week

National Skills Week highlights the talents, skills, career pathways and value of apprentices and trainees across Australia to the wider public and employers. Did you know that NCVER provides a comprehensive range of data and research on apprentices and trainees? For more information, here are some latest releases:

• Completion and attrition rates for apprentices and trainees 2013
• Apprentices and trainees 2013 – annual
• Understanding the non-completion of apprentices

Apprentices and trainees 2014 – March quarter stats

Australian vocational education and training: apprentices and trainees 2014 – March quarter
Nationally, there were 386 800 apprentices and trainees in-training as at 31 March 2014, a decrease of 12.4% from 31 March 2013. This latest release of quarterly data also shows commencements, completions, and cancellations and withdrawals declined compared with the March quarter 2013.
Data for states and territories are also available.

The importance of vocational education and training (VET) to small business owners

Service Skills Australia CEO, Yasmin King, recently spoke at the Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBOA) Conference. Yasmin’s speech below outlines the importance of vocational education and training to small business owners.

Opening of the Plenary session for Council of Small Business of Australia Conference  – Women and Productivity

When I commenced in my retail business I had an honours degree in economics with a double major in accounting, but while I had knowledge, I had no skills in how to run a business.

I make this distinction as somewhere along the way we have devalued the acquisition of skills yet as small business, these are what you value for yourself or for your employees.

…more

Students and courses

Australian vocational education and training statistics: students and courses 2013

This publication provides a snapshot of Australia’s publicly funded vocational education and training (VET) sector for 2013. It presents national information about students and participation, courses and qualifications, module/unit of competency enrolments, hours of delivery and full-year training equivalents.

State or territory training provider breakdowns of the data are available as Excel files. In addition, selected pivot tables containing information on student characteristics, students by courses, students by industry skills council training package groupings, qualification completions by industry skills council training package groupings and subject (modules/units of competency) enrolments are also available.

Fewer young people in training in 2013

About 41 800 fewer young people (aged 15 to 24 years) enrolled in publicly funded vocational education and training in 2013, compared with 2012.
Fewer young people in training in 2013