The student journey: the many faces of completion and non-completion in VET

This research explores the many faces of course completion and non-completion in vocational education and training. By tracking student enrolments via the unique student identifier in the National VET Provider Collection, we gain a greater understanding of how individuals mix and match training types and their movement through VET, enabling identification of a broader range of training successes.

One such measure of success is the completion of all enrolled subjects despite qualification non-completion. Using this measure, an additional 19.8% of 2016-commencing students had a successful outcome with VET, on top of the 49.5% who successfully completed their program.

The analysis also showed that students mix and match various elements of training by enrolling in and completing subjects, either alone or in addition to program enrolments, and that compliance or regulatory-related subject enrolments impact training outcomes in complex ways.