COMPLETION rates among trainees and especially apprentices are better than previously acknowledged. But not much better, according to new estimates released today by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research.
The figures reveal that that about 55 per cent of apprentices and trainees finish their training, not the 48 per cent reported in February by the expert panel on apprenticeship reform.
The latest data-crunching exercise confirms earlier NCVER estimates, released in May, which took account of people who change employers during the course of their training.
Until now, terminated contracts have been recorded as non-completions, even when people continued their training under new employers. “We needed a method that factored this movement in,” said NCVER managing director Tom Karmel.
The new method involved adjusting contract completion rates, using “average recommencement data”, to calculate individual completion rates. This made a significant difference in the trades but only a marginal difference in non-trade occupations, the NCVER found.
The individual trade completion rate of about 56 per cent was almost a quarter higher than the contract completion rate, with marked improvements in the completion of hairdressing, construction, electrotechnology, telecommunications, food, automotive, engineering and wood trade apprentices.
Two in three electrotechnology and telecommunications apprentices completed their training with one employer or another, the report found, with automotive, engineering and printing trade workers also completing at better than 60 per cent.
But only 54 per cent of hairdressers and 38 per cent of food trade apprentices completed, even allowing for employer swapping.
The non-trade occupations recorded an overall individual completion rate of 54 per cent – barely above the 53 per cent contract completion rate – despite high rates for carers, cleaners and laundry workers.
Completion data takes up to four years to compile because of the time taken to complete apprenticeships and traineeships. But the report followed a separate methodology to project the likely completion and attrition rates for apprentices and trainees who commenced as late as last year.
It found that two in three food trades and hairdressing apprentices who commenced in 2010 were likely to break their contracts at some stage – almost a quarter of them within three months.
Overall, the figures suggest apprentices are less likely than trainees to stick with their initial employers, but more likely to complete with subsequent employers – suggesting the longer training period provides more time to make a change, but also more incentive to finish.
Experts say conditions and future earning prospects also play a big role in completion rates. Dr Karmel said the relationship between apprentices or trainees and their employers was the key to improving completion.
Kit McMahon, general manager of the Service Industries Skills Councils, said the relationship between student and training provider was also crucial.
She said it was important to obtain a clear picture of movements in and out of work – particularly in highly feminised and casualised sectors like the service industries – because understanding non-completion was the key to understanding re-engagement.
Ms McMahon said caring responsibilities often forced service industry workers to change jobs. “This is the reality of work and life,” she said.
On a bright note, the report estimates contract completion rates for apprentices and trainees who started last year will rise to 56 per cent, up from 50 per cent in 2006, on the back of strong improvements in the non-trade occupations.
And a separate NCVER report on participation, also released today, shows that there’s proportionally more apprentices and trainees than a decade ago – and they’re finishing more quickly.
Last year apprentices and trainees comprised 3.8 per cent of the Australian workforce, up from 3.1 per cent in 2000. And 30 per cent of those studying at certificate III level or above completed within two years, compared to 21 per cent in 2000.
Growth in apprenticeships and traineeships bounced back strongly last year, following the lull precipitated by the financial crisis.
Having slumped 6 per cent to 272,000 in 2009, commencements rebounded by 16 per cent or 42,500 – the biggest increase since at least 2000 – to top 300,000 for the first time.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Dropout apprentices costing billions
APPRENTICES and trainees who drop out could cost Australia almost $12 billion over the next decade, with small and regional businesses copping most of the pain, according to new NSW modelling.NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli will ask his state, territory and Commonwealth counterparts to make apprenticeship completion a national priority at tomorrow’s training ministers’ meeting in Melbourne.He released new figures showing the cumulative impact of non-completion in NSW, which trains about 30 per cent of Australia’s apprentices and trainees, would be $3.5 billion over the next decade.Employers would incur the bulk of the costs through productivity loss, administration expenses and other expenditure, while state and federal governments would also lose hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies and incentive payments.NSW-commissioned modelling by Deloitte Access Economics has estimated the combined losses in the state last year at over $180 million. Employers lost $124 million, the state government $33 million and the Commonwealth $26 million in payments to NSW apprentices and employers.Mr Piccoli said the estimates were conservative because they were based on a non-completion rate of 36 per cent.The National Centre for Vocational Education and Training has estimated the non-completion rate for trade apprentices as 44 per cent, after allowing for people who change employers during the course of their training.Mr Piccoli said small and medium businesses and rural areas suffered disproportionately, partly because they had higher drop-out rates and partly because they had more apprentices in the first place.He said over 80 per cent of NSW apprentices worked in enterprises with 50 employees or less.Over 90 per cent of employers had less than four apprentices – almost two-thirds employing just one apprentice – and 44 per cent of businesses with apprentices were outside major cities, even though regional NSW has just 34 per cent of the state’s population.“These employers are doing more than their fair share of apprenticeship training and bearing a disproportionate share of the costs of non-completion,” Mr Piccoli said.“If no action is taken over the next decade the cost to NSW employers is likely to exceed $1.2 billion. The NSW Government would incur costs in the order of $425 million and the Commonwealth over $260 million.”Mr Piccoli said affordable, accessible and tailored options were needed to support apprentices “and their overwhelmingly small and medium business employers”.“These businesses generally don’t have a specialised human resource department or the extensive resources larger companies have. Attention should not only be focused on changes at the national level – we must also think locally.”Group Training Australia CEO Jim Barron said non-completion was the “hot-button” VET policy issue across the political spectrum.He said there were substantial knock-on effects on top of the immediate costs to employers and governments. “If a young person drops out of an apprenticeship they’re less likely to re-engage, [as is] a small business person [who] has an unhappy experience with an apprentice.”Mr Barron said governments that funded activities to address the problem – mentoring, pastoral care and information provision, for example – would recoup the investment in improved tax receipts.He said large-scale recruitment of apprentices without retention strategies was a false economy. “We have record sign-ups but we don’t have record completions.”Earlier this year Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said apprenticeship completion rates were appalling. This year’s federal budget included $80 million over four years for apprenticeship mentoring services, and $22 million over two years to advise school leavers about apprenticeships.“Clearly that’s a down payment in restructuring apprenticeship services that commence more, progress more and ultimately complete more,” Mr Barron said.
APPRENTICES and trainees who drop out could cost Australia almost $12 billion over the next decade, with small and regional businesses copping most of the pain, according to new NSW modelling.NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli will ask his state, territory and Commonwealth counterparts to make apprenticeship completion a national priority at tomorrow’s training ministers’ meeting in Melbourne.He released new figures showing the cumulative impact of non-completion in NSW, which trains about 30 per cent of Australia’s apprentices and trainees, would be $3.5 billion over the next decade.Employers would incur the bulk of the costs through productivity loss, administration expenses and other expenditure, while state and federal governments would also lose hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies and incentive payments.NSW-commissioned modelling by Deloitte Access Economics has estimated the combined losses in the state last year at over $180 million. Employers lost $124 million, the state government $33 million and the Commonwealth $26 million in payments to NSW apprentices and employers.Mr Piccoli said the estimates were conservative because they were based on a non-completion rate of 36 per cent.The National Centre for Vocational Education and Training has estimated the non-completion rate for trade apprentices as 44 per cent, after allowing for people who change employers during the course of their training.Mr Piccoli said small and medium businesses and rural areas suffered disproportionately, partly because they had higher drop-out rates and partly because they had more apprentices in the first place.He said over 80 per cent of NSW apprentices worked in enterprises with 50 employees or less.Over 90 per cent of employers had less than four apprentices – almost two-thirds employing just one apprentice – and 44 per cent of businesses with apprentices were outside major cities, even though regional NSW has just 34 per cent of the state’s population.“These employers are doing more than their fair share of apprenticeship training and bearing a disproportionate share of the costs of non-completion,” Mr Piccoli said.“If no action is taken over the next decade the cost to NSW employers is likely to exceed $1.2 billion. The NSW Government would incur costs in the order of $425 million and the Commonwealth over $260 million.”Mr Piccoli said affordable, accessible and tailored options were needed to support apprentices “and their overwhelmingly small and medium business employers”.“These businesses generally don’t have a specialised human resource department or the extensive resources larger companies have. Attention should not only be focused on changes at the national level – we must also think locally.”Group Training Australia CEO Jim Barron said non-completion was the “hot-button” VET policy issue across the political spectrum.He said there were substantial knock-on effects on top of the immediate costs to employers and governments. “If a young person drops out of an apprenticeship they’re less likely to re-engage, [as is] a small business person [who] has an unhappy experience with an apprentice.”Mr Barron said governments that funded activities to address the problem – mentoring, pastoral care and information provision, for example – would recoup the investment in improved tax receipts.He said large-scale recruitment of apprentices without retention strategies was a false economy. “We have record sign-ups but we don’t have record completions.”Earlier this year Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said apprenticeship completion rates were appalling. This year’s federal budget included $80 million over four years for apprenticeship mentoring services, and $22 million over two years to advise school leavers about apprenticeships.“Clearly that’s a down payment in restructuring apprenticeship services that commence more, progress more and ultimately complete more,” Mr Barron said.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
When student debt blows out
The next time a vice-chancellor explains the need for higher student fees to fund their education consider what is occurring in the US, where student debt is through the roof. Yes I know the systems are different, yes I know the established universities there blame everything on for-profit institutions, yes I know a quality education costs.
But the American experience offers salutary examples of what occurs when universities can safely jack up their fees because government carries the risk of default. According to Federal Reserve of New York research reported in the Wall Street Journal, there is US$550 billion in understanding student loans. Sure this is a drop in the US ocean of insolvency, total household debt is $11.42 trillion. But while general debt is down outstanding student loans are on the increase, up 25 per cent over three years.
This is obviously not all due to ever-inflated student fees. The Common Rom suspects many Americans are sitting out the slump by studying for an employment related degrees. But as government funding declines the cost of college individuals wear is increasing and seems certain to continue until the market can bear it no more.
According to one finance company that wants to securitise student loans (and why does this idea seem frighteningly familiar) there was a $133bn shortfall between the cost of higher education and what the taxpayer plus students and parents could fund in 2010.
As it is, US education is much more expensive than its famously wasteful health system. A 2010 paper by Justin la Mort found that between 1982 and 2006 average family income increased by 147 per cent while the cost of the health care system rose by 251 per cent. In contrast, college tuition and fees were up 439 per cent, “In 1983 a student could work full-time during the summer and pay two-thirds of their annual college costs. In today’s climate, however, it would take a year working minimum wage if the student didn’t incur any other expenses. Students are left with little choice but to take a loan or forgo college,” he writes.
So what’s to be done? For graduates carrying big debt the answer is obvious, encourage the best and the brightest by writing off loans. According to Jesse Rothstein and Cecilia Rouse from the National Bureau of Economic Research the best and the brightest will take public service jobs if they are not burdened by debt.
Given that all Washington’s revenues will be spent on defence, health and welfare by the end of the decade without reform, debt forgiveness is not going to happen – and the American undergraduate will stagger on, at least until somebody comes up with a quality low-cost university alternative.
But what if anything does this mean for us, or come to that the Brits, where fees will shortly triple?
Who knows? With apologies to anybody whose work the Common Room is too ignorant to be aware of, nothing much appears to have been done on the iimpact of student debt on what people do with their lives. According to an ABS 2009 report the media student loan debt was $9000 in 2005-2006, (granted this is now ancient information) and a report last year by Claire Houssard, Anne Sastro and Suzana Hardy concluded that more work was needed to determine the impact of HECS debt on socioeconomic inequality.
But the US experience demonstrates what can happen.
But the American experience offers salutary examples of what occurs when universities can safely jack up their fees because government carries the risk of default. According to Federal Reserve of New York research reported in the Wall Street Journal, there is US$550 billion in understanding student loans. Sure this is a drop in the US ocean of insolvency, total household debt is $11.42 trillion. But while general debt is down outstanding student loans are on the increase, up 25 per cent over three years.
This is obviously not all due to ever-inflated student fees. The Common Rom suspects many Americans are sitting out the slump by studying for an employment related degrees. But as government funding declines the cost of college individuals wear is increasing and seems certain to continue until the market can bear it no more.
According to one finance company that wants to securitise student loans (and why does this idea seem frighteningly familiar) there was a $133bn shortfall between the cost of higher education and what the taxpayer plus students and parents could fund in 2010.
As it is, US education is much more expensive than its famously wasteful health system. A 2010 paper by Justin la Mort found that between 1982 and 2006 average family income increased by 147 per cent while the cost of the health care system rose by 251 per cent. In contrast, college tuition and fees were up 439 per cent, “In 1983 a student could work full-time during the summer and pay two-thirds of their annual college costs. In today’s climate, however, it would take a year working minimum wage if the student didn’t incur any other expenses. Students are left with little choice but to take a loan or forgo college,” he writes.
So what’s to be done? For graduates carrying big debt the answer is obvious, encourage the best and the brightest by writing off loans. According to Jesse Rothstein and Cecilia Rouse from the National Bureau of Economic Research the best and the brightest will take public service jobs if they are not burdened by debt.
Given that all Washington’s revenues will be spent on defence, health and welfare by the end of the decade without reform, debt forgiveness is not going to happen – and the American undergraduate will stagger on, at least until somebody comes up with a quality low-cost university alternative.
But what if anything does this mean for us, or come to that the Brits, where fees will shortly triple?
Who knows? With apologies to anybody whose work the Common Room is too ignorant to be aware of, nothing much appears to have been done on the iimpact of student debt on what people do with their lives. According to an ABS 2009 report the media student loan debt was $9000 in 2005-2006, (granted this is now ancient information) and a report last year by Claire Houssard, Anne Sastro and Suzana Hardy concluded that more work was needed to determine the impact of HECS debt on socioeconomic inequality.
But the US experience demonstrates what can happen.
Scandal deters visa seekers
SEVERAL former international students have left Australia or abandoned claims for permanent residency following exposure of fraud at Curtin University's English language test centre.
The HES understands about 20-50 permanent residency cases, almost all involving former students, are under investigation by the federal Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
Nine people, including a former Curtin employee, have been sentenced for bribery offences related to a trade in fake English test results at the Perth centre.
To secure permanent residency as a skilled migrant, former overseas students needed not only their Australian qualification but minimum scores on the International English Language Testing System.
Anyone using a false test result was "essentially stealing a visa place" from others with genuine results, a senior DIAC official told the anti-corruption inquiry into the Curtin centre earlier this year.
DIAC can cancel a visa already granted or refuse an application for a visa if the person has supplied fraudulent information.
Out of fairness the department gives notice before it takes action. Given notice, several people have left the country or withdrawn their PR applications, the HES understands.
Earlier this month, Curtin employee Keith Low was sentenced to two years in prison for 15 counts of accepting bribery over a 10-month period in 2009-10.
The court was told that for many of those counts, involving falsified results, the original paper results for the listening and reading sections of the test could not be found by the IELTS headquarters at Cambridge University in Britain.
Under the IELTS, those papers should have been sent to Cambridge, but theBritish test centre did not notice test papers were missing until August last year, when it notified Curtin of suspect test results.
"The fact there were missing tests was one of the factors that alerted IELTS to possible irregularities at Curtin and triggered our inquiry," a spokesperson for Cambridge said.
Following the scandal, Curtin closed its centre and held the last IELTS test on August 13.
Education broker IDP, which owns the IELTS business in Australia, is stepping in to open its first directly run test centre in Perth.
IDP will use the same Curtin test venue.
The HES understands some other IELTS test centres in Perth are not happy about IDP's entry to the market.
IDP's IELTS director John Belleville said: "Obviously the fewer the centres, the more student numbers they'll get themselves. But we're not adding an additional centre to Perth, we're replacing one that's closing down.
"In that sense, not much has changed."
The HES understands about 20-50 permanent residency cases, almost all involving former students, are under investigation by the federal Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
Nine people, including a former Curtin employee, have been sentenced for bribery offences related to a trade in fake English test results at the Perth centre.
To secure permanent residency as a skilled migrant, former overseas students needed not only their Australian qualification but minimum scores on the International English Language Testing System.
Anyone using a false test result was "essentially stealing a visa place" from others with genuine results, a senior DIAC official told the anti-corruption inquiry into the Curtin centre earlier this year.
DIAC can cancel a visa already granted or refuse an application for a visa if the person has supplied fraudulent information.
Out of fairness the department gives notice before it takes action. Given notice, several people have left the country or withdrawn their PR applications, the HES understands.
Earlier this month, Curtin employee Keith Low was sentenced to two years in prison for 15 counts of accepting bribery over a 10-month period in 2009-10.
The court was told that for many of those counts, involving falsified results, the original paper results for the listening and reading sections of the test could not be found by the IELTS headquarters at Cambridge University in Britain.
Under the IELTS, those papers should have been sent to Cambridge, but theBritish test centre did not notice test papers were missing until August last year, when it notified Curtin of suspect test results.
"The fact there were missing tests was one of the factors that alerted IELTS to possible irregularities at Curtin and triggered our inquiry," a spokesperson for Cambridge said.
Following the scandal, Curtin closed its centre and held the last IELTS test on August 13.
Education broker IDP, which owns the IELTS business in Australia, is stepping in to open its first directly run test centre in Perth.
IDP will use the same Curtin test venue.
The HES understands some other IELTS test centres in Perth are not happy about IDP's entry to the market.
IDP's IELTS director John Belleville said: "Obviously the fewer the centres, the more student numbers they'll get themselves. But we're not adding an additional centre to Perth, we're replacing one that's closing down.
"In that sense, not much has changed."
Immigration officials cancel 159 student visas after airport interviews
MORE than 150 overseas students returning to Australia in the last financial year were intercepted by immigration authorities at the airport over visa breaches and put on a plane home within 72 hours.
Indians were the largest group (55) with student visas cancelled at the airport, followed by Chinese (37). And of the 470,221 people who arrived on a student visa, almost 9000 were questioned by immigration officials.
The figures were released by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship following an application by the HES under Freedom of Information legislation.
In 2010-11, the most common breach leading to cancellation of a student visa at the airport was failure to maintain an enrollment or no longer attending classes. Of the 159 with visas cancelled, 151 were sent home within 72 hours. Most had vocational education visas (84) or higher education visas (66).
Migration agent Jonathan Granger said although 159 cancellations was a small number, DIAC's message would be quickly and widely spread through social media used by students.
However, Federation of Indian Students of Australia spokesman Gautam Gupta said the airport crackdowns were "perceived to be retribution because students protested" against attacks on Indian students in 2009.
Monash University's Chris Nyland, who has written about the plight of international students, said students planning to go overseas should be able to get a document from their institution showing there were no problems of the kind that could get their visa cancelled. "It would say you have permission to leave and you are in good standing at the university," he said.
Mr Granger described the interceptions as part of "a cat and mouse game" between DIAC and offshore agents.
A few years ago, when cookery and hairdressing were easy routes to permanent residency, Indian agents packaged these vocational courses with higher education, making it easier to secure a visa. However, there was never any intention to go on to the higher education course and some of these students were believed to be among those caught at airports, he said.
If they were allowed back in the country, they could get bridging visas with full work rights and pursue skilled migration, adding to DIAC's backlog.
In February, when the HES reported the airport crack-down, immigration lawyer Michael Jones said students had no right to independent review of a visa cancellation unless they could get back into the country. He said appeals against visa cancellations had a high success rate because private colleges often had unreliable records.
"How is the student supposed to prove that [kind of objection to a cancellation] in the 10 minutes the student is given at the airport?" he said.
However, a DIAC official said: "Visa cancellations at the border are conducted under strict natural justice rules. Officers will weigh all relevant factors for and against the cancellation."
Mr Gupta said a student stepping off a long flight, with no legal representation and sometimes poor English, could not get natural justice in a short interview.
Indians were the largest group (55) with student visas cancelled at the airport, followed by Chinese (37). And of the 470,221 people who arrived on a student visa, almost 9000 were questioned by immigration officials.
The figures were released by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship following an application by the HES under Freedom of Information legislation.
In 2010-11, the most common breach leading to cancellation of a student visa at the airport was failure to maintain an enrollment or no longer attending classes. Of the 159 with visas cancelled, 151 were sent home within 72 hours. Most had vocational education visas (84) or higher education visas (66).
Migration agent Jonathan Granger said although 159 cancellations was a small number, DIAC's message would be quickly and widely spread through social media used by students.
However, Federation of Indian Students of Australia spokesman Gautam Gupta said the airport crackdowns were "perceived to be retribution because students protested" against attacks on Indian students in 2009.
Monash University's Chris Nyland, who has written about the plight of international students, said students planning to go overseas should be able to get a document from their institution showing there were no problems of the kind that could get their visa cancelled. "It would say you have permission to leave and you are in good standing at the university," he said.
Mr Granger described the interceptions as part of "a cat and mouse game" between DIAC and offshore agents.
A few years ago, when cookery and hairdressing were easy routes to permanent residency, Indian agents packaged these vocational courses with higher education, making it easier to secure a visa. However, there was never any intention to go on to the higher education course and some of these students were believed to be among those caught at airports, he said.
If they were allowed back in the country, they could get bridging visas with full work rights and pursue skilled migration, adding to DIAC's backlog.
In February, when the HES reported the airport crack-down, immigration lawyer Michael Jones said students had no right to independent review of a visa cancellation unless they could get back into the country. He said appeals against visa cancellations had a high success rate because private colleges often had unreliable records.
"How is the student supposed to prove that [kind of objection to a cancellation] in the 10 minutes the student is given at the airport?" he said.
However, a DIAC official said: "Visa cancellations at the border are conducted under strict natural justice rules. Officers will weigh all relevant factors for and against the cancellation."
Mr Gupta said a student stepping off a long flight, with no legal representation and sometimes poor English, could not get natural justice in a short interview.
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