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The 2003 Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) conference was held in Brisbane in August 2003. This paper begins with the premise that the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) collects a vast amount of data about the public vocational education and training (VET) sector. Some, but not enough, data are collected about the private sector and this paper aims to remedy the situation. The paper describes the various NCVER statistical collections that contain data on VET, what they cover and what they do not cover, with some data from each collection providing context. The nest section identifies the gaps and makes a case for expanding the collections. A range of principles that the author argues should govern any expansion of the NCVER collections is given followed by a range of options governed by the principles. Finally, consultations having begun with a wide range of stakeholders as part of a major push toward total VET collections, the author outlines two areas that NCVER is pursuing immediately: (1) publication of data on private provision that is supplied to NCVER but is considered 'out of scope'; and (2) data on publicly funded VET which does not appear in the NCVER collection because it is funded by government departments other than the training authorities, notably training to prison inmates, police and defence personnel and health workers.