Unaccredited training: why employers use it and does it meet their needs?

By Ian White, Navinda De Silva, Toni Rittie Research report 10 December 2018 978-1-925717-24-2

Description

We know from the 2017 Survey of Employers’ Use and Views of the VET System that around half of employers in Australia are looking outside the nationally accredited vocational education and training (VET) system to provide their employees with training.

This report explores the reasons employers are using unaccredited training, why they chose this form of training over others and whether it is meeting their skill needs.

Summary

About the research

The key drivers of employer investment in workforce training include improving the quality of a product or service, the adoption of new technology, and to meet legislative, regulatory or licensing requirements. Various types of training — accredited, unaccredited, informal — are accessed by employers to fulfil their training needs. This report focusses on employer’s use of unaccredited training.

As unaccredited training sits outside the mandatory reporting requirements of the nationally recognised accredited training system, administrative data relating to its use are not systematically collected in the National VET Provider Collection, therefore the true extent of its uptake in Australia is largely unknown. However, we know from the 2017 Survey of Employers’ Use and Views of the VET System that around half of employers in Australia are looking outside the nationally accredited vocational education and training (VET) system to provide their employees with training to meet their skill needs.

This study takes a closer look at employers’ use of unaccredited training, explores why they use it, why they choose unaccredited training over accredited training, and whether it meets their skill needs.

Key messages

  • In 2017, over 90% of Australian employers provided some form of training to their employees: 54% engaged with the VET system; 51% used unaccredited training; and 81% said they provided informal training.

  • Employers are looking to develop skills that are highly job relevant or organisation specific with unaccredited training. Cost, the ability to tailor the training and flexibility in provision are the key reasons for employers choosing unaccredited over accredited training.

  • Most employers using unaccredited training are satisfied that it provides the required skills for their workers. Around half of the employers using unaccredited training did not use an external provider, but, for those who did, private training providers and professional/industry associations were the main providers chosen, largely because of their high level of industry knowledge and the suitability of the course content for their employees.

  • While both accredited and unaccredited training were selected by employers to meet their skill needs, little research is available on the impact that the type of training has on the employee, particularly with respect to the transferability and recognition of their skills to other occupations or industries. Are the skills and capabilities acquired through accredited and unaccredited training comparable? The upcoming Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) review may go some way towards formal recognition for unaccredited training. There is also little to no data available on employers’ expenditure on training and whether this influences their training choices.

  • We await the 2019 Survey of Employer’s Use and Views of the VET System to gain the latest insights on employer training choices. The results will be available in October 2019.

Simon Walker
Managing Director, NCVER

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