As the Australian, state, and territory governments approach a five-year skills funding agreement, recent data on student completion rates highlight the need for a significant reassessment of government funding priorities in this area. This view is held by the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA), which represents independent providers in the skills training, higher education, and international education sectors.
“Governments seem increasingly inclined to restrict students’ choices by funding only public TAFE colleges. However, the data indicates that independent training providers often yield better results for both students and taxpayers,” remarked Troy Williams, Chief Executive of ITECA.
This perspective is based on the latest data from the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research (NCVER). The NCVER statistics show that, across all qualification levels, private RTOs have completion rates up to 17% higher than public TAFE colleges for government-funded students.
Qualification Level | TAFE | Private RTO | |
Certificate I completion rate | 22.5% | 38.5% | |
Certificate II completion rate | 33.8% | 50.8% | |
Certificate III completion rate | 51.9% | 57.9% | |
Certificate IV completion rate | 44.2% | 51.9% | |
Diploma (And Above) completion rate | 51.9% | 53.3% | |
Total | 43.0% | 54.2% |
“The NCVER also data reveals that private RTOs consistently achieve higher levels of student satisfaction across several key metrics,” Mr Williams said.
Satisfaction Metric: | TAFE | Private RTO | |
Achieved main reason for doing the training | 85.7% | 88.7% | |
Satisfied with support services | 77.5% | 81.5% | |
Satisfied with teaching | 87.2% | 88.9% | |
Satisfied with the facilities | 84.2% | 85.0% | |
Satisfied with the learning resources | 81.6% | 85.4% | |
Satisfied with the training overall | 88.9% | 90.7% |
According to ITECA, the data shows why government policy that only gives students the option to study with public TAFE colleges is misplaced, as the NCVER data shows this rarely delivers the best outcomes for students and taxpayers.
“Currently, there is a significant push to by government put ‘TAFE at the heart’ of the skills training system, which many independent RTOs are pushing back against. Instead, ITECA firmly believes in putting students at the heart of the system, where their freedom to choose their preferred training provider is backed by the government,” Mr Williams said.
