VET & TAFE
campusreview.com.au
Trades trump uni
University not always the
best path to higher earnings,
Grattan report says.
By Wade Zaglas
T
he latest Grattan Institute report
has found that men who score low
ATARs at school but gain vocational
qualifications in engineering, construction
or commerce are more likely to have higher
average earnings than if they had instead
pursued a degree.
UNIVERSITY AT ALL COST?
The dearth in those taking up vocational
training comes in spite of a national
skills shortages in many trades that is
predicted to soon become critical. Recent
data estimates that Australia will need
up to a million workers with vocational
qualifications by 2023, and this imminent
decline was the focus of this year’s National
Skills Week.
Brian Wexham, the event’s founder, said
change needed to come from parents.
“We’re faced with this challenge that
many, many parents still believe that the
right route for their child is to go to university
and they will get a more fulfilling and better
career, and for some that is true, but of
course it’s not true for everyone,” he said.
“A lot of students are practical learners
– they’re not academically inclined. And
frankly I think universities have a lot to
answer for, because they encourage people
to go there even if it might not be suitable
for them.
“It’s been widely reported that some
universities have accepted ATARs of 50,
12
and frankly all they’re doing is enrolling
somebody who’s probably destined to fail,
and all they end up doing is having a HECS
bill, but if you’re an apprentice you get paid
to learn.”
Universities have defended their
graduates’ employment outcomes in light
of the Grattan report.
Universities Australia chief Catriona
Jackson said a low ATAR can be a sign of
disruption during a student’s Year 12 studies.
“It doesn’t predict the destiny of every
student, and the vast majority of students
who enter university go on to successfully
complete their studies,” she said.
On graduate jobs and salaries, she
said: “University graduates earn up to
$1 million more over their lifetimes on
average and are 2.5 times less likely to be
unemployed than those without a higher
qualification.
“Nine in 10 university graduates are in
full-time work three years after graduation,
and four out of five undergraduates work in
professional or managerial roles.
“And the median salary of university
graduates three years on from finishing
their studies is $70,000.”
The Grattan report also highlights the
gender disparity at play, with men receiving
a 10 per cent higher salary than women.
The differences in gender pay at the
Certificate III/V and Diploma levels were
negligible, with men receiving roughly one
percentage point more.
The disparity between the number of
male and female construction workers
appears to be growing in several sectors.
In 2016, there were 12,000 women with
vocational engineering qualifications,
compared to 300,000 men.
Typically, professions such as education,
nursing and human welfare continue to be
the purview of “women’s work”, an issue
that must be addressed sooner rather than
later if Australia is to maintain its reputation
as a knowledge-driven, equitable society.
Another key finding in the report is the
worse you perform at university the lower
your earning potential will be in the future.
The report pointed out that “low-ATAR
commerce graduates failed 12 per cent
of their subjects”, and it was subjects like
IT, engineering and science that had the
worst dropout rates. Conversely, liberal arts
students are the most likely to succeed at
university.
The number of students enrolling in
university has swelled by more than a third
over the past decade, with more students
with lower ATARs and those from diverse
backgrounds now attending. The increase
has had a direct impact on trades-based
courses, which are down 43 per cent in
five years.
COAG talks recently addressed the
concern about critical skills shortages and
led to the commissioning of a review of
post-secondary school pathways.
Andrew Norton, Grattan’s higher
education program director, said some
university graduates were struggling to get
jobs, especially if they studied generalist
degrees in humanities and science – which
is particularly the case with students with
low ATARs.
“This report is looking at the concern
that some low ATAR students, who have
been increasing in numbers at university,
would have been better off in vocational
education,” Norton said.
“The report finds that is true in some
cases, particularly for young men.
“We find that there is a high risk that
they won’t get the financial benefits of
higher education that higher ATAR students
would get, and that they would do well
in a range of vocational occupations
such as engineering and trades related
[to] construction and some commerce-
type degrees.”
However, Norton said the picture was
different for women.
“By contrast, lower ATAR women who
go into nursing and teaching degrees have
pretty good employment outcomes, very
high rates of professional employment, and
we think they’ll end up earning a lot more
than the women who go into vocational
education,” he said. ■