Drivers of student training choices - a focus on student support services

Description

Using a discrete choice experiment, this report explores the influence student support services have on student choice of RTO and how this compares with other drivers of student choice. Overall, student support services have some influence on student choice, but it is not as strong as the influence of course cost, delivery mode and travel time. The desire for support offerings does not vary greatly with course cost and there is a willingness to pay extra for student support services. It is suggested that RTOs could provide more detailed information around student support services on their websites to potentially attract more students.

Summary

About the research

The vocational education and training (VET) information landscape is complex. The multitude of training providers, the diverse range of courses available, varying fees, and differences among providers can present a daunting environment for students.

Prior studies have identified several key influences on student choice of training provider, such as the views of trusted influencers, course timetables, location of the training, perceived quality of training provider and affordability. However, how these drivers of student choice compare with one another and whether student support services also play a role remain unclear.

Using a discrete choice experiment, this research investigates the influence of student support service offerings on students’ choice of training provider and how they compare with other drivers of student choice, for example, course cost, delivery mode and travel time. In particular, the research focuses on health and welfare support, career counselling and job-search support, and tutoring and guidance on study skills.

Key messages

• Student support services have some influence on student choice, but it is not as significant as that of course cost, delivery mode and travel time. Course cost was found to be the most influential factor on student choice of training provider.
• When examining the availability of different levels of student support services, any type of support was considered much more valuable than none at all.
• The desire for support offerings does not vary greatly with course cost, with participants indicating they would be willing to pay extra for student support services.
• To help students with their decision-making, training providers could provide more detailed information online about their student support services. They could also provide information on the student support services available to all students, rather than merely for certain groups, such as people with disability, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples, or those from a non-English speaking background, as may currently be the case.

Executive summary

Understanding the reasons why students choose to study at a particular registered training organisation (RTO) and the factors that may influence their decision-making is not new to vocational education and training (VET) research. Previous work by Brown (2017) found that, in no particular order, training location, trusted influencers, timetables, fees and affordability, and perceived quality of the training institution are the main factors influencing choice. Additionally, EY Sweeney (2021) highlighted that flexibility, study mode and support from providers have become more important drivers of student choice since the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus of this current research is different, in that it is among the first in Australian VET research to investigate the influence of the availability and provision of student support services and to use a discrete choice experiment to understand the trade-offs that individuals may make between different factors when choosing an RTO.

Student support services can involve a range of training-related supports, such as literacy and numeracy support or flexible learning options, as well as non-training-related supports, for example, wellbeing supports and advice on job-search activities. This research focuses on three student support offerings — tutoring and study skills guidance; career counselling and job-search support; and health and welfare support — and how these relate to other drivers of student choice; namely, course cost, delivery mode, and travel time. It also considers how better choices can be facilitated.

To inform the research, an initial manual scraping of a random sample of 100 RTO websites, their affiliated social media pages and MySkills^[1] webpages was undertaken. The aim was to gain an overview of the ease with which students could locate information on support options, as well as to get some idea of the types of student support services on offer. On the whole, there is great variability in the information relating to student support offerings given on RTO websites, with some having very detailed information in an easy-to-locate position; others with less accessible information in downloadable student handbooks; and others with no information at all. Information on student support services on the individual RTO pages on the MySkills website was even more sparse, while social media posts mainly shared wellbeing tips or support for causes, such as R U OK Day. These sources of information helped to inform the design of the discrete choice experiment.

The discrete choice experiment, which involved 650 participants between the ages of 16 and 64 who were either undertaking tertiary (post-school) study or interested in doing so, showed:

• Overall, student support services have some influence on student choice, but it is not as strong as the influence of course cost, delivery mode and travel time. Course cost was found to be the most influential factor in student choice of RTO.
• In terms of the availability of different levels of student support services — personalised one-on-one support, groups sessions, or no support at all offered — students are much more likely to select either the one-on-one support or group sessions than the no support offering, demonstrating that any type of support is regarded more highly than none at all.
• Additionally, when considering the sensitivity of student support services to increases in course cost, overall, the desire for support offerings does not vary significantly with course cost. In fact, willingness-to-pay estimates demonstrate that students will pay at least $300 extra for student support services.
• It would be reasonable to assume that individuals from certain demographic groups may have a greater preference for student support services being available, for example, those with a learning-related disability or who are unemployed; however, this is not reflected strongly in the results.

What does this mean in terms of facilitating better choices?

• RTOs could revise the information associated with student support services on their websites and MySkills webpages to ensure that it reflects what is actually available at the RTO and also that this information is easily located by prospective students. At the moment, great variability exists across RTOs in terms of the amount of information they disclose. Providing this information might mean that more students become interested in attending the RTO.
• Moreover, only highlighting the support available for certain groups of students, such as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples or people with disability, may influence other students’ deliberations on whether to enrol at the RTO. RTOs could ensure general guidance relating to support offerings is provided for all students.

Furthermore, the findings from this research build upon and support outcomes from other research:

• The finding that course cost is the most influential factor in student choice of training provider builds upon the previous work by Brown (2017) and Maxwell, Cooper and Biggs (2000).
• Highlighting that student support services do indeed play some role in student choice of RTO and that students are willing to pay extra for student support services provides further evidence for the findings of EY Sweeney (2021), which argued that support from providers has become more important in student choice of RTO following the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Lastly, the preference for blended and online delivery modes over face-to-face delivery by participants in the discrete choice experiment and their willingness to pay more for these delivery modes should provide some assurance for training providers looking to transition more courses to blended or online delivery modes following the COVID-19 pandemic, as highlighted in Hume and Griffin (2021).

[1] MySkills is an Australian Government initiative that allows users to search for, and compare, nationally recognised training courses  and providers.