Enrolments in vocational education and training (VET) care and support qualifications continue to grow however the number of students successfully completing these qualifications varies. Given that care and support workforces are already facing employment shortages, increasing the number of learners who complete qualifications is a key priority.
Against a backdrop of broader research into VET completions, this project will specifically explore the reasons why care and support learners may not be completing qualifications. It could be due to a number of reasons such as life circumstances, relevance or suitability of course components, requiring a set of skills the qualification offers that cannot be gained elsewhere, finding employment and more. We hope to gain insight into the reasons and seek to make recommendations on how these can be addressed.
During our project set up, we will analyse existing literature, consultations undertaken by other HumanAbility projects and VET data on care and support qualification enrolments and completions to develop an issues paper which will identify some of the areas of concern, emerging themes and potential gaps and areas that we can examine during the next phases of the project.
Learnings from the issues paper will guide our consultation and whether we focus on one or more care and support sectors. Subsequent findings and recommendations may inform future research into other sectors.
Consultation participants will include:
- current and former students
- training providers
- key industry stakeholders, including peak bodies, employers and unions.
Findings from our issues paper will inform which demographics and qualifications or sector/s will be the focus of consultation.
Consultation will occur over 4 months and is likely to commence in September 2025.