Government-funded students and courses 2025

Description

This publication provides data and insights on Australia’s government-funded vocational education and training (VET) system, drawing on data as at and to 31 December 2025.

Government funded VET is defined as all Commonwealth and state or territory government-funded training delivered by technical and further education (TAFE) institutes, other government providers (such as universities), private providers and community education providers.

State and territory governments fund vocational education and training through their own and Commonwealth contributions, including Intergovernmental Agreement funding. Funding for vocational education and training supports local and national skills needs (such as those under the National Skills Agreement), though not all funding goes to direct training delivery.

Since 2023, the Commonwealth has funded Fee-Free TAFE with states and territories to reduce financial barriers and expand access to training in priority areas. While Fee-Free TAFE activity falls within scope of this reporting, it is not separately collected and therefore cannot be identified in the data. Data for this program are available from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. NCVER will begin collecting and reporting Free TAFE data from 2027.

Data for the Government-funded students and courses series are received in four cumulative submissions across the calendar year. This report covers the full period of 1 January to 31 December 2025. All figures in this publication may be filtered by the state/territory responsible for administering funding of training activity, unless footnoted otherwise. Additional data are available in DataBuilder, VOCSTATS, and by request to NCVER.

Report

In 2025, compared to 2024, there were:

• 1,137,645 students, a decrease of 82,170 (6.7%)
• 1,310,845 program enrolments, a decrease of 132,545 (9.2%)
• 1,106,240 qualification enrolments, a decrease of 116,770 (9.5%)
• 350,800 qualification completions, a decrease of 16,740 (4.6%)

Each year, governments support the placement of new entrants into the system while continuing to support the ongoing training of past entrants. Program enrolment figures represent an aggregation of this new and continuing training activity, and students may study multiple forms of training concurrently.

Disaggregating to commencing activity provides a clearer picture of new entries into VET programs in 2025, and allows comparison with commencements in previous years. Training may span multiple years, and continuing program enrolments capture this ongoing activity within the system. Trends in continuing activity can reflect increases or decreases in commencements from previous years.

While both commencing and continuing program enrolments in 2025 were down overall compared with 2024, there was a larger decrease in commencing activity (-11.0%) than continuing activity (-6.2%). Declines across enrolments overall were driven by reduced activity in nationally recognised qualifications and short courses, which form the majority of government funded program activity. Locally developed and non-nationally recognised programs saw some growth in continuing and (to a lesser extent) commencing activity relative to 2024.

Governments also fund a mix of providers (e.g. TAFEs, schools) to meet their specific training goals. The mix of providers may be adjusted annually to support updated priorities. As above, the reporting of training activity at a provider is a combination of both the latest year and ongoing training from previous years.

Nationally, program enrolments were down both at TAFE institutes (-10.6%) and private training providers (-12.6%), though there was a slight increase in enrolments at other provider types (+5.3%), mainly driven by schools and universities.

Students

Government directs VET funding to key equity and priority cohorts to improve access and participation, address disadvantage, and ensure a more inclusive and skilled workforce. Priority cohorts typically include Indigenous people, women, and people with disabilities, among others.

In 2025, students with a disability were the only cohort to increase from 2024 to 2025. All other cohorts declined. Numbers varied across states and territories.

Participation rates show how widely the working age population (15 - 64) engages with government-funded VET, indicating the reach and relevance of this investment. In 2025, an estimated 6.2% of the Australian resident population aged 15 to 64 years participated in government-funded VET. Participation was highest among those aged 15 to 19 years at 18.7%.

Program enrolments

Governments support the delivery of a variety of training types, spanning both nationally and non-nationally recognised training. The type of training classification is hierarchical and accounts for both who delivered the training and whether that training – both the subjects and program – is recognised across Australia. Recognised training delivered by a currently registered training organisation is referred to as nationally recognised.

There were increases within locally developed courses and non-nationally recognised training compared to 2024, whereas declines were found across all nationally recognised program types (i.e. training package qualifications and skills sets, accredited qualifications and courses). This trend was largely observed across states and territories.

Qualification enrolments

Governments predominantly fund nationally recognised qualifications, and overwhelmingly those from training packages. Training packages are organised around an industry-defined skills framework, and contain endorsed training products, such as units of competency and portable industry-recognised qualifications.

Relative to 2024, the largest absolute increases in training package qualification enrolments for 2025 were in Electrotechnology (up 7.3%), while large declines were seen in Community Services (down 11.1%) and Business Services (down 28.7%).

Training package programs span multiple qualification levels depending on the occupation and skill requirements, but are most commonly delivered at Certificate III and IV levels. In 2025, enrolments in both training package qualifications and accredited qualifications at the Certificate III and IV levels declined relative to 2024 (-8.4% and -17.3% for these two levels, respectively).

Qualification completions

Qualification completions measure the number of students who complete a full qualification and provide an important indicator of training outcomes. However, not all learners complete a qualification, with many leaving after gaining the specific skills or competencies needed for work or further learning.

Completions are reported as occurring within a given year, though completions may relate to study that commenced one or more years earlier. How long it takes for a student to complete a qualification is influenced by many factors including the intended occupation, skill level, study load, and student’s prior learning.

In 2025, there were 350,800 government-funded nationally recognised qualification completions in Australia. This figure will be revised in future releases of Government-funded students and courses.

Completion rates, which report on the proportion of a commencing cohort who eventually completed, are published separately. For information on completion rates, refer to NCVER’s VET qualification completion rates.

Other government-funded training

Data on other forms of training, including subject-only and non-nationally recognised training, are available in the DataBuilder and VOCSTATS.