Project purpose
This project will use the newly developed Master Student Longitudinal View (MSLV) in combination with the National VET Provider Collection to:
- identify potential alternative indicators of successful training outcomes – in addition to program completion – such as subject completion, progression to further training, etc.
- investigate different student pathways in VET.
The mapping of the student journey will attempt to identify whether students are notionally completing courses (as identified by successful subject completions within the relevant programs) or progressing to additional VET study without an actual completion recorded. It will also attempt to capture how students move between VET courses and/or RTOs across the period of available Total VET Activity (TVA) data.
Research questions
- What are the possible alternative measures of success in VET, such as articulation to other training etc.?
- For programs that are associated with low completion rates, are there consistent patterns within subject enrolments and subject outcomes? For example, are there patterns in which subjects are typically completed/not completed that might indicate ‘force to course’ activity?
- Do stereotypical training pathways exist whereby students move between VET programs and/or providers, and if so, what do they look like (for example, patterns in movement within and between level and/or field of education)?
- To what extent do students mix and match between VET qualifications, short courses, skillsets, and subject-only enrolments?
Methodology
A literature review will initially be conducted to explore different measures of student success as well as find out what is already known about student movement through VET and reasons for non-completion.
Following this, the MSLV and TVA collection will be used to track VET students across time to explore non-completion of VET programs, student movement through VET programs and providers, and the extent to which students mix and match different types of training.
It should be noted that the MSLV captures information on training activity within VET only and cannot be used to explore outcomes data or transitions to other education sectors.