Education

Performance
Performance Measure 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13
Actual 1 Actual 1 Target
Attainment measures for 15–19 year-olds, achieving:
2013–14
Target
120 credit points in education and training 4,178 4,438 4,395 4,595
some vocational education and training 2 5,591 7,634 7,600 7,900
a Tasmanian Certificate of Education 2,878 3,179 3,075 3,404
a tertiary entrance rank 2,224 2,237 2,428 2,382
NSSC Census 3 8,470 8,592 8,200 8,300
Apparent retention rate Years 10–12 4 70.4 67.0 71.0 71.0
Full year training equivalents 5 14,600 N/A 14,600 14,700
Training participation rate 5 14.1 N/A 14.3 14.5
Student Satisfaction – Graduates 6 90.6 90.3 90.0 91.0
Student Satisfaction – Module Completers 6 79.2 90.9 87.0 91.0
Sources: Tasmanian Qualifications Authority, National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC), Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Schools, Australia (cat. no. 4221.0),
NCVER Student Outcomes Survey 2012, Annual National Report of the Australian Vocational Education and Training System 2011.
Notes:
1. Actual performance measures are based on calendar years. The
measures for the 2010–11 Actual are based on the 2011 calendar year,
while the measures for 2011–12 Actual are based on the 2012 calendar
year. Completion and participation rates are affected by economic
circumstances and targets assume these circumstances, especially
youth employment opportunities, will remain stable over this period.
Some figures vary from figures published in the department’s budget
papers (2012–13) due to a more recent data set being available for
this report.
2. From 2012–13, this measure includes Vocational Education and Training
(VET) data sourced from all non-government registered training
authorities.
3. Actuals are the total full-time equivalent (FTE) for further education
students regardless of age, at the Mid-Year Census. The 2012–13 and
2013–14 targets represent a slight reduction associated with forecasts of
student cohort size.
4. Apparent Retention Rate is a measure of the number of school students
in a designated year of education expressed as a percentage of their
respective cohort group in a base year. Figures relate to full-time
government school students. Retention improved significantly in 2010
due to a combination of many factors, most notably students studying
longer, new entrants to the Further Education and Training system who
had not previously been enrolled in a Tasmanian Government school
and adults returning to the sector after breaks in education. For small
populations like Tasmania, the ABS notes that relatively small changes
in student numbers can create large movements in apparent retention
rates. ABS also notes that care should be exercised in the interpretation
of apparent retention rates as the method of calculation does not take
into account a range of factors such as:
• students progressing at a faster or slower than expected rate of
one grade-level a year
• interstate/international migration
• movement between government and non-government sectors
• enrolment policies
• students enrolled in alternative education and training pathways,
such as vocational education and training.
Sustained improvement in retention is long term in nature and will be
subject to variations from year to year.
5. Participation (age 15–64) in all publicly funded VET and commercial
activity by government providers. Participation rates are derived by
calculating total student numbers in the age group as a percentage of the
estimated residential population in that age group. The participation rate
is sensitive to enrolments in short courses.
6. The 2011–12 actual data is not available at the time of publication.
Preliminary 2011–12 data was planned to be available in late May 2013
and published on the Skills Tasmania website. These figures will be
verified with National Centre for Vocational Education Research
(NCVER) data in July.
7. Student satisfaction is the percentage of a sample of students surveyed
by the NCVER who reported that they were satisfied with the overall
quality of training.
48 Post-Compulsory Education and Skills Development