Key facts:

The Australian, State and Territory governments’ recurrent expenditure (including user cost of capital) on VET totalled $5.8 billion in 2016 – a real decrease of 6.7 per cent from 2015.

Nationally in 2016:

• an estimated 4.2 million students participated in total VET, and around 1.3 million students participated in government‑funded VET
• there were 4279 VET providers, of which 1,931 delivered government-funded VET at 36,146 locations in Australia
• 7.8 per cent of the Australian population aged 15–64 years participated in government-funded VET
• around 367,300 qualifications were completed by government-funded VET students aged 15–64 – equivalent to 23.1 qualifications per 1000 people.

Nationally in 2017:

• 87.8 per cent of all government-funded 2016 VET graduates were satisfied with the overall quality of their training
• 71.4 per cent of employers engaged with VET were satisfied with all forms of VET training engaged with
• 57.5 per cent of 20–64 year old total VET graduates from 2016 improved their employment status after training  – an increase from 56.5 per cent in 2016.

The VET system aims to deliver a productive and highly skilled workforce through enabling all working age Australians to develop and use the skills required to effectively participate in the labour market and contribute to Australia’s economic future. To achieve this, the Australian, State and Territory governments aim to create a national training system that:

• is accessible to all working age Australians
• meets the needs of students, employers and industries
• is high quality.

Governments aim for a national training system that meets these objectives in an equitable and efficient manner.