Answers to Questions

Skills for All

In reply to the Hon. T.A. FRANKS (3 June 2014). (First Session)

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers): I have been advised the following—

The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) reports that in 2013 there were 64,000 qualifications completed in South Australia, an increase of 45.6 percent (or 20,000 completions) on 2012. This compares to a fall nationally of 3.6 per cent.

The increased completions for South Australia, which had the highest increase of all jurisdictions, came at a time where South Australia had invested heavily in training and so it should be no surprise that there was a high level of completions.

According to NCVER, it is estimated that South Australia's completion rate for VET programs commenced in 2013 (at certificate I and above) was 38.0 per cent. This was 4.0 percentage points above the national rate of 34.0 per cent.

South Australia had the second highest completion rate, 2.8 percentage points below the Australian Capital Territory at 40.8 per cent.

According to internal DSD data, between 1 July 2012 and 30 September 2015, around 199,500 students participated in Skills for All funded activity. Of these around:

81,000 have completed a qualification

43,900 are still enrolled and continuing their studies

74,600 have not completed, and are not currently studying their Skills for All course. It should be noted that these students may well chose to return to training, as VET provides the opportunity for students to continue studying in the future.