VET News

What is VET's role in the Youth Unemployment Story?

Vocational Education and Training (VET) pathways in school, work-based training and career guidance are critical to youth employability, especially for disadvantaged young people. 

By examining responses to past economic downturns and recessions, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER)'s latest research summary on 'What VET can offer to COVID-19 youth unemployment recovery', highlights what the VET sector can contribute to protect youth from long-term unemployment and under-employment during and following the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Vocational pathways in secondary school broaden young people’s understanding of the types of jobs that  potentially await them and smooth the school-to-work transition, but the experience must be meaningful and  supported by personalised career guidance. 
• Work-based training achieves the best lasting employment outcomes. Although apprenticeships and traineeships offer one mechanism, they are not the only effective work-based training approach. 
• Career planning is essential for enabling youth to understand the breadth of occupations open to them.  Individualised, ongoing support from an informed and objective person works best, especially for  disadvantaged youth.  
• The rapid digitisation of VET delivery is unique to this recession and has proved to be a double-edged sword:  accessibility has improved for some learners, while those with limited access to the internet or electronic devices, or who lack digital skills, have been disadvantaged. High-quality online training and assessment experiences, those that support the most vulnerable unemployed youth, are resource-intensive approaches for  training providers.

New NCVER data also shows the COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts on the employment outcomes for students who had previously completed a VET qualification in 2019. The report VET Student Outcomes 2020: impact of COVID-19 on domestic students  uses data from the National Student Outcomes Survey 2020 and examines how those students were impacted in terms of their employment outcomes as at the 29^th of May 2020.

NCVER's Managing Director, Simon Walker said that for those who were employed after training, there was mixed impact on the number of hours worked since COVID-19 but that there was some good news for the post-secondary education sector, with 32.5% enrolled in further study after training, the highest proportion in the past 3 years.

For further information download: VET Student Outcomes 2020: impact of COVID-19 on domestic students

Date posted May 20, 2021