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Australia's tertiary education sector comprises higher (university) education and vocational education and training (VET). The purpose of this paper is to contrast the two sectors in terms of the way they are defined, their size and recent growth, the characteristics of their student bodies and access and equity within the two sectors. The paper also considers the links between the two sectors.

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This brief article is based on a recent National Centre for Vocational Education (NCVER) publication, ‘Giving credit: a review of RPL and credit transfer in the vocational education and training sector 1995 to 2001’. The review indicates that recognition of prior learning (RPL) is meeting the objective of helping students gain recognised qualifications without having to undertake study for skills they already possess. The article highlights the significant differences in the uptake of RPL between groups of students as well as the key barriers to its uptake. Show less

This paper begins by describing the impact of economic and social conditions on the demand and supply of skills in Australia. It then discusses the current Australian policy environment relating to vocational education and training (VET) before looking at the SEAMEO region and the global trends that are likely to impact on member countries. In the final section, the paper looks at some of the implications for training and research. Major trends and issues discussed include: the increasing extent of part-time work and casualisation; increasing female participation in the labour market; the importance of increasing the level of education and training for teenagers; the spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs); and an ageing population. The paper concludes that in setting research priorities, it is important to take note of the structural changes that impact on VET. There are a number of trends that affect all countries - the growth of service sectors and the knowledge economy, the ageing population, and the general increase in educational levels - and these need to be taken into account.

The collection of keynote and inspirational papers is indexed at TD/TNC 74.370; selected papers are indexed at TD/TNC 74.371 and TD/TNC 74.372. Show less

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. Show less

Predicting the future is a mug's game. There are too many unknowns and many ways of achieving a particular outcome. However, it is useful to put some sort of structure on the notion of skill requirements and to think about the likely effects of trends that we are confident will occur. The paper discusses a 'market segmentation' approach to student demand and then considers a number of trends that will impact on that demand.

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