Overview
National Skills Week 2025 arrives with a clearer view of how Australia’s publicly funded vocational education and training system is tracking. The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) has released the Government-funded students and courses 2024 results, and the signal is consistent, if nuanced. Nationally recognised VET students fell by 2.7 per cent to 1,156,045 in 2024. Total government-funded students, a broader measure, declined by 2.6 per cent to 1,220,230. Even so, participation remains above pre-pandemic levels and the five-year trend since 2019 is still higher. The program mix has shifted back towards deeper, job-facing credentials: full qualifications dipped only slightly, short courses contracted more, and stand-alone nationally recognised subjects recorded the steepest decline. For planners, funders, and providers, the message is to protect momentum where training turns fastest into jobs and to double down on completions rather than chase raw volume.
The national picture: smaller than 2023, stronger than 2019
The 2024 results mark a gentle easing after a post-COVID rebound. The overall student count is lower than in 2023, but nationally recognised training is 6.7 per cent higher than in 2019. This matters because it indicates that the cyclical tailwinds of the pandemic period have settled into a new baseline rather than unwinding entirely. The composition of study is also tilting in a direction that policymakers have sought: full qualifications remain comparatively steady at –0.9 per cent, while short courses (skill sets and accredited courses) are down 4.1 per cent, and stand-alone nationally recognised subjects have fallen 12.6 per cent. Put plainly, learners are committing more to complete credentials and less to piecemeal enrolments, a pattern consistent with tighter labour markets that reward comprehensive capability.
Provider landscape: stability at the core, quiet diversification at the edges
TAFE institutes remain the backbone of government-funded VET. On the critical measure of students enrolled in nationally recognised qualifications, TAFE numbers were essentially flat at –0.6 per cent. Across all government-funded students, TAFEs still educated just over half of the cohort at 52.8 per cent. Private training providers declined by 2.8 per cent and community education providers fell by 4.2 per cent, while other training providers were slightly lower at –2.7 per cent. One category moved strongly in the opposite direction: other government providers grew by 15.0 per cent. That lift signals a quiet diversification of publicly supported delivery beyond the traditional TAFE/private split, particularly in segments linked to public safety, emergency services, and defence. The number of distinct government-funded providers fell from 1,481 to 1,447, continuing a gradual consolidation trend that has been evident since 2019. Fewer funded providers, coupled with growth in other-government delivery, point to a market that is tightening around capability and public priorities rather than proliferating at the margins.
Participation and equity: encouraging gains with targeted gaps
Equity indicators present a mixed but often encouraging picture. Among students in nationally recognised qualifications, Indigenous participation rose by 6.2 per cent, learners with disability increased by 3.3 per cent, in-school VET participants were up 4.9 per cent, and unemployed learners grew by 0.7 per cent. Full-time study surged by 10.2 per cent, a sign that more students are using VET as a primary pathway rather than a peripheral supplement. Offsetting these gains, female participation edged down by 1.6 per cent, and regional and remote participation declined by 0.7 per cent. Both areas warrant deliberate retention and outreach strategies, particularly in fields where women and regional learners have historically been underrepresented. At a system level, the participation rate for Australians aged 15–64 settled at 6.7 per cent in 2024, down from 7.1 per cent in 2023 but broadly aligned with pre-pandemic levels. Engagement among 15–19-year-olds remains high at 18.8 per cent, reaffirming VET’s central role in youth credentialling and career entry.
State dynamics: three growth stories and a cautionary note
VET demand continues to track regional economic cycles and state investment settings. Western Australia grew from 126,370 to 132,985 government-funded students, an increase of 5.2 per cent. Queensland lifted from 251,420 to 258,025, up 2.6 per cent. Victoria nudged up from 294,205 to 296,995, a rise of 0.9 per cent. These gains reflect labour market strength, population inflows, and state funding priorities geared towards infrastructure, care, and regional delivery. NCVER has advised that 2024 data underwent remediation and that some jurisdictional counts, particularly New South Wales, may be overstated. Analysts should therefore treat fine-grained state comparisons with care and triangulate with administrative sources before drawing firm conclusions about market share within sub-sectors.
Fields of education: care and construction hold; business and tourism adjust
Program enrolments reinforce the consolidation theme. Government-funded program enrolments totalled 1.444 million in 2024, down 3.5 per cent. Enrolments in nationally recognised qualifications stood at 1.224 million, down 2.2 per cent, with training package qualifications accounting for 90.6 per cent of those qualification enrolments. Community Services remained the largest training package field and grew by 3 per cent to 264,320 enrolments. Construction, Plumbing and Services eked out a small increase to 113,245, up 0.4 per cent. Business Services fell 11 per cent to 102,425, Health declined 3 per cent to 67,385, and Tourism, Travel and Hospitality contracted by 18.6 per cent to 48,260. Persistently strong demand in care and construction is unsurprising given demographic pressures and the pipeline of public infrastructure. Business and tourism-related fields are still adjusting to post-COVID employer demand and hiring patterns, with some white-collar roles tightening and hospitality’s recovery uneven across regions.
Subject-level signals: fewer compliance-only enrolments, more focus on credentials
Subject-only activity continued to rationalise. Stand-alone nationally recognised subjects fell to 50,260 enrolments, a 22.6 per cent decline. Stand-alone non-nationally recognised subjects increased to 74,375, up 9.1 per cent. As in previous years, Provide First Aid (HLTAID011) remained the single most common nationally recognised stand-alone unit. The broader shift suggests that funders and providers are concentrating effort on complete qualifications that carry clear labour-market currency, while reserving unit-only delivery for licensure, safety, or tightly targeted upskilling.
Data quality and interpretation: remediation and consolidation
Two structural points will shape how decision-makers interpret the 2024 results. NCVER delayed publication to complete data remediation and paused some quarterly outputs. The agency has explicitly warned that 2024 counts for New South Wales may be inflated, which means state-level trend analysis should be approached with caution. Provider counts continued to consolidate, with distinct government-funded providers declining from 1,481 to 1,447. Consolidation, alongside growth in the “other government” category, implies a sector recalibrating delivery around public objectives, quality controls, and the capacity to service priority cohorts.
What the numbers mean for 2025 funding and policy
The 2024 profile, slightly lower aggregate volume, stronger full-time commitment, and gains across priority cohorts, support a steady, focused approach to 2025 funding. Commonwealth, state, and territory funders will get better returns by targeting places in care, construction, public safety, and critical infrastructure, where training translates quickly into jobs, and completion rates can improve through wrap-around supports. This is not an argument for austerity. It is an argument for disciplined allocation, with an emphasis on progression and completions over commencements for their own sake. Performance frameworks should prioritise learner outcomes, including transitions into sustained employment, further study in areas of demand, and wage growth where relevant, rather than simple headcounts.
What TAFEs should do next
TAFE institutes remain central to the system’s stability and scale. The 2024 mix validates continued investment in student support that improves persistence and completion, particularly for Indigenous learners, students with disability, and those studying full-time. Regional delivery deserves specific attention, given the positive growth stories in Western Australia and Queensland and the slight overall decline in regional and remote participation. Deepening partnerships with employers in Community Services and Construction will help convert enrolment momentum into durable employment outcomes. TAFEs should also continue to refine hybrid delivery models that balance access with quality, ensuring that online components are matched with practical learning opportunities and consistent assessment standards across campuses.
How private and community providers can adapt
Private and community providers face a more uneven demand profile. Contraction in Business Services and Tourism, Travel and Hospitality will challenge providers whose models depend on those fields. The way forward is to defend capability in niches that still matter locally, partner into growth areas led by public investment, and lift equity performance where female and regional learners slipped. Providers should re-examine short-form offerings and ensure they are clearly positioned as bridges into full qualifications or as targeted upskilling anchored to licensure and safety. In a tightening market with fewer funded providers, clarity of purpose and demonstrable outcomes will be decisive.
Product strategy: short courses with a purpose
The contraction in stand-alone subjects and skill sets is not a verdict against short-form learning. Rather, it is a reminder to use short courses precisely. Where a skill set is framed as an on-ramp to a full qualification, aligned to a job role, or required for compliance, it retains strong value. Where unit-only delivery has drifted into convenience or fragmentation, funders and providers should consolidate into complete programs that support employability and progression. Transparent ladders from micro-credentials into qualifications can preserve flexibility for learners while sustaining the system’s focus on recognised outcomes.
Using NCVER evidence to improve completions
The five-year increase since 2019 shows the system can expand and hold gains. The task now is to turn enrolments into completions and completions into jobs. NCVER’s refined evidence base should be used to identify where attrition clusters and to direct support accordingly. For full-time students, timely academic assistance, financial counselling, and work-integrated learning can lift persistence. For in-school VET learners, stronger school-to-TAFE transitions and employer connections will matter. For Indigenous learners and learners with disability, effective wrap-around services and culturally safe practice remain essential. Providers that link these supports to clearly signposted employment pathways will find it easier to sustain growth where it matters.
A practical agenda for the year ahead
The immediate agenda is straightforward. Funders should maintain targeted places in care and construction while tracking completion and employment outcomes more closely than commencements. TAFEs should invest in supports that keep priority learners in study and build stronger employer interfaces in fields with labour shortages. Private and community providers should align product portfolios with public priorities and reinforce equity performance. All providers should audit short-form offerings to ensure they serve licensure, safety, or clear progression into full qualifications. Across the system, states that grew in 2024 offer lessons on aligning investment with local demand and population flows. Jurisdictions facing declines can use the data to refine outreach, especially to women and regional and remote learners.
A smaller, sharper system with a clear mandate
Government-funded VET in 2024 was smaller than the year before, but it was also more focused. The centre of gravity remains with TAFEs, equity cohorts advanced on several measures, and care and construction continue to anchor demand. The five-year trend above 2019 confirms that the system has consolidated gains rather than giving them back. For National Skills Week 2025, the practical mandate is clear. Use the evidence to tune investment to fields and regions where training converts quickly to work. Lift completions with the same energy that went into enrolment growth during the rebound years. Sustain targeted support for the cohorts that moved forward in 2024, and close the gaps that opened for women and regional and remote learners. A disciplined, outcomes-first approach will deliver more for students, employers, and the economy than a return to volume-chasing.
