Education at a Glance is the 2023 OECD guide to the state of education globally. An analysis of all levels of education; with data covering education attainment, enrolment, finance and organisation of systems.
The OECD report covers early childhood, primary, secondary, Vocational Education and Training (VET) and higher education sectors. This 2023 edition has a spotlight on VET profiled within each country’s ecosystem.
The Australian sector, with more than 4,000 publicly and privately owned RTOs, enrolled approximately 250,000 international students pre covid; it is an integral pillar of the international education presence and outward-facing representation of the skills sector.
Takeout from the OECD report;
- The distribution of spending between general and vocational upper secondary programmes depends on a variety of factors, such as the number of VET students, the fields of study within VET programmes and the importance given to VET relative to general programmes. In Australia, 10% of all funding for educational institutions is spent on general upper secondary education and 3% on vocational upper secondary education, both below the respective 11% and 10% of OECD averages.
In addressing investment imbalances, Working Future, the Australian government’s White Paper on jobs and opportunities, will be a key driver of future VET design. While pointing to few radical changes in skills and higher education, it does pre-empt the upcoming Dept of Home Affairs Migration Strategy, which will influence skilled migration and focus on student transition from study into areas of skills shortage.
The Australian labour market roadmap (within the working future document), highlights this policy focus on “Reforming the migration system through better targeting skilled migration, improving the employment outcomes of international students and realising the employment potential of migrants.”
So, while the OECD report primarily looks at the nature of investment and delivery of VET systems domestically, it provides comparative global insights into the design and implementation of other nations’ VET ecosystems. This is valuable for Australian investment decisions in constructing an internationally robust and attractive system.
Key OECD summary document links;
Full report here
VET specific report here
Australia country note here
