VET courses are practical, skills-based, job-focused education and training in vocational areas like accounting, beauty, business, design, IT, social care, recruitment and more. A VET course may be a qualification (Certificate I – Vocational Graduate Diploma) or a skill set. Qualifications or skills sets are made up of different subjects or modules, known as units of competency.

The VET system delivers training for senior secondary school students, school leavers, jobseekers, those already employed, and those reskilling or upskilling. VET is part of the tertiary education system which in Australia falls into two categories: Higher Education and VET.

The type of education someone chooses will depend on their career goals. Some jobs may require a higher education degree, some will require a VET qualification, some will need both, and others will accept either.

There are 4.5 million VET students (2022), representing almost a quarter of Australia’s population aged 15 - 64 years, compared to over 1.55 million (2022) local and international students who choose to study in universities each year.

Specific: training content meets specific job role requirements. A key strength of the VET system is the link between VET and the labour market, enabling individuals to learn the skills industry needs and be job ready.

Flexible: the availability of the training, location and mode of delivery can be tailored to an individual’s circumstances. The duration of a VET course can also be flexible, depending on the units of competency (subjects) selected and a learner’s existing skills and knowledge.

Portable: units of competency may be common to several different qualifications, so if a learner is undertaking training that includes units of competency they already hold, these units are portable and can be transferred to other qualifications or skill sets.

Quicker: typically, an undergraduate (Bachelor) degree takes three years, or four years for a professional degree, a VET course typically takes two years or less.

Cost: because VET courses are usually shorter than higher education degrees, they typically cost less. Some TAFEs now offer fee-free courses.

Only a training organisation that is registered with a VET regulator (see Q6) can deliver nationally recognised VET.

This type of organisation is called a registered training organisation, or RTO. There are 4,000 RTOs in Australia and six broad types of RTO:

1. Training and Further Education (TAFE) institutes, run by the government (e.g., TAFE NSW).

2.  Private RTOs, non-government organisations delivering a wide range of VET courses (e.g., Australian Fraud and Anti-Corruption Academy).

3. VET divisions of the public universities (e.g., Swinburne University of Technology). These institutions are known as dual sector institutions.

4. Some schools are RTOs and deliver VET within the senior secondary curriculum.

5. Adult and Community Education providers, addressing specific community needs (e.g., Atwea College).

6. Enterprise RTOs, non-government organisations who customise training for specific businesses or industries (e.g., Department of Defence).

The list of RTOs that are approved to deliver nationally recognised training is here.

The National Centre for Vocational Education Research NCVER publishes detailed stats about RTOs.

The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) regulates approximately 90% of training providers that deliver VET qualifications and courses. They quality assure the delivery of VET courses to ensure they meet nationally approved standards.

There are separate regulators in Victoria (Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority) and Western Australia (Training Accreditation Council in Western Australia). They continue to register and regulate RTOs which deliver training to domestic students only in those states.

The list of courses is on the official national VET register. RTOs can issue nationally recognised certificates in line with the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). The qualification levels offered under VET (from highest to lowest) are:

• Vocational Graduate Diploma

• Vocational Graduate Certificate

• Advanced Diploma

• Diploma

• Certificate IV

• Certificate III

• Certificate II

• Certificate I

Accredited VET courses are recognised nationally, regulated, and delivered to the same standard all over Australia. They lead to a formal qualification and can be delivered only by RTOs that have the course on their scope of registration. Non-accredited courses are not regulated, so quality and consistency can vary, and they do not result in a nationally recognised qualification.

The choice between accredited and non-accredited training depends on the specific requirements of the industry and/or the learner's goals.

VET course fees can vary depending on the course and the institution. From January 2023, the Australian Government and State and Territory Governments funded 180,000 fee-free TAFE and vocational education places. A further 300,000 places were made fee-free from January 2024 under the 5-year National Skills Agreement. These places are to address skills shortages in areas of national priority and will target priority groups.

We are finding that the attitudes of employers, parents and learners are changing quickly. VET is becoming an increasingly attractive career pathway. It is estimated that 9 out of 10 new jobs in the next decade will require a post-secondary school education, with 4 of the 10 requiring VET qualifications. Employment in occupations with a VET pathway has surged over the past five years, including roles such as aged and disability care, cyber security, technology, electrical and plumbing.