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A popular view is that tradespersons' earnings compare favourably with those with university education. This view is not borne out by wage data, but a common rejoinder is that it is the self-employed tradespersons who make the 'big' money (and probably under-report their income). These ideas are examined by analysing household expenditure data in conjunction with income data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Household Expenditure Survey and the Survey of Income and Housing. The data also allow us to look at wealth across occupations. [The authors'] findings are that neither expenditure data nor wealth data change significantly the relativities between the trades and occupations more associated with higher education. While no doubt there are some very rich tradespersons, on average those with university degrees earn more than those with trade qualifications. And there is little evidence to suggest than on average self-employed tradespeople 'do better' than those who are employees.

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This occasional paper aims to provide a picture of the occupations in the community services and health industry, and how the workforce obtains the required skills. The authors argue that planning for the industry should concentrate on occupations specific to the industry and those which require high skill levels. Findings suggest that the qualification levels of community services and health workers have increased substantially over the past decade. Furthermore, community services and health vocational education and training (VET) courses are well targeted, with most graduates finding employment in the industry. Show less

A major trend in Australia is the increasing proportion of the workforce with qualifications. By comparing the relationship between qualifications and occupations for various age cohorts we look at how this trend has changed the prospects of individuals with a particular level of qualification. We find that individuals with diplomas are particularly affected, with a diploma no longer being the entry qualification into high skill jobs that it once was. Finally, we explore the implications of this for vocational education institutional structures.

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This is a report on the findings of the 2016 National Aged Care Workforce Census and Survey (NACWCS) conducted by the National Institute of Labour Studies, on behalf of the Department of Health. It is the fourth report in the series (previous reports were in 2003, 2007, and 2012 [report indexed in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 111.1075]. The 2016 report contains information about the size and composition of the workforce, training and education, the characteristics of aged care workers and the organisations in which they work, experiences of working in the sector, and factors related to staff recruitment and retention.

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This paper analyses the increase in credentials in the labour market between 2011 and 2021. Our starting point is that there has been a very large increase in credentials between 2011 and 2021 accompanied by considerable change in the occupational structure of the labour market. These two factors have fashioned the opportunities available to individuals with different qualifications. Earlier work (Karmel 2023) [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 154.615] concluded that credentials have become more important even in the lowest jobs.

In this paper, we explore the implications of the structural change on incomes by investigating the average weekly incomes of full-time workers on the basis of their qualification (higher degree, degree, diploma or certificate III/IV) and their occupation. We are hopeful that the analysis will provide some evidence on the extent of 'credentialism' by which we mean that qualifications are being used to get a job in a specific occupation rather than being necessary for that occupation, as contrasted to the alternative interpretation of 'skills deepening' in which qualifications are directly feeding into productivity. The occupational classification we have used is the four digit [Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations] ANZSCO with some 470 individual occupations. The data comes from the Population Censuses of 2011 and 2021.

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This report examines the growth in apprenticeships and traineeships between 1997 and 2003, with a particular focus on older workers. The research looks at what a typical apprentice or trainee is (in occupational terms) and the apprenticeships or traineeships in which older people play an important part. It also looks at whether the rapid growth in older apprentices and trainees can be explained by the growth in occupations in which apprenticeships and traineeships are offered or whether the growth is more due to older people increasing their share within particular apprenticeships or traineeships. The research found apprenticeships and traineeships changed dramatically during this period, with the range of occupations widening, part-time apprenticeships and traineeships now common, and apprenticeships and traineeships no longer the preserve of the young male, being now available to persons of all ages and to existing workers as well as new entrants to an industry. While the numbers have grown for all age and sex groups, the largest percentage increase was for males over the age of 45 years, followed by women aged 45 years and over. The group with the slowest growth is young males, but even here the growth was over 50%. The range of occupations in which apprenticeships or traineeships are available has also increased. The study concludes that the main picture to emerge is one of change. Show less

This paper provides an analysis of the changing labour market and the impact on the vocational education and training (VET) sector over the ten years 2011 to 2021. Taking a descriptive approach to changes in the labour market over this period of time, the analysis exploits granular data from the Census of Population and Housing. Our primary interest is in the relationship between what is happening to occupational employment on one hand and qualifications on the other.

We look at the occupational distribution in a number of ways. In addition to using the broad [Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations] ANZSCO classification (for example, professionals, managers) we rank jobs (more specifically four digit ANZSCO occupations) by average income and also according to the five Australian Bureau of Statistics skill levels categories. We group qualifications into six categories: higher degrees, bachelor degrees and equivalent, diplomas and advance diplomas, certificates III/IV and two residual categories comprising 'other certificates' and no post-school qualification. Under current institutional arrangements the first two are the purview of Higher Education and the second two of Vocational Education and Training. We should also note that the data refers to the highest qualification, so individuals who upgrade their qualifications are counted under their highest qualification. We also make use of the field of study which is collected in the Census.

The outlook of the analysis is less than benign for VET. The occupational structure is changing in a way not sympathetic to diplomas and certificates, and the supply of persons with degrees is only going to increase, making the lower level qualifications less competitive.

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One of the most important social and economic trends over the last 50 years (or longer) has been the increase in education levels in the workforce. This has been underpinned by public policy settings which see expenditure on education and training as an investment in human capital, with a return to both individuals and the economy. The positive pay-off from education remains the linchpin of this policy direction, and in general the evidence is pretty solid. The purpose of this paper is to explore further one particular aspect of the pay-off from education - the type of job an individual with a particular level of education is likely to get. The general idea has been presented earlier (Karmel 2011). The authors use occupations as a device to rank jobs and then compare the distributions of jobs across time for individuals with particular education levels. In the earlier paper, for example, it was found that between 1996 and 2006, individuals with a diploma became considerably less likely to have a job in the top two deciles of skilled jobs (based on an index which ranked occupations depending on their qualification profile). The extension in this paper is four-fold. First, the data are updated to 2011, taking advantage of the Census of that year. Second, the analysis considers two alternative indexes, with occupations ranked on the basis of income and also by socioeconomic status, as well the qualifications profile. Third, changes in the occupational structure of the labour market are isolated, by using the 1996 distribution of jobs as the benchmark. Finally, the analysis is undertaken at a broad field of education level, to emphasise the point that averages mask considerable variation in people's experiences.

The paper: considers three indexes that can be used to rank occupations; shows how educational qualifications have increased and how the occupational distribution of jobs changed between 1996 and 2011; presents an analysis of the occupational distributions, focusing first on the relationship between educational qualification and occupational distributions in 1996 and then the changes between 1996 and 2011, and then repeats the analysis by field of education; and ends with a short discussion.

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The purpose of this paper is to look at international students in vocational education and training (VET) in some detail: where they come from, their fields of study, and the outcomes on completion with particular interest in which international students undertake courses that address the needs of the labour market, the extent to which they complete courses and the outcomes of graduates.

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