Australian vocational education and training (VET) data looks at enrolment and completion numbers by gender and field of education.
This includes STEM courses in:
You can use this data to compare VET enrolment and completion numbers for diversity and location groups in STEM fields, non-STEM fields and health fields, as well as gender equity within groups. Non-binary and gender diverse people are included in the calculation of proportions and are included in the commentary.
The Power BI dashboards in the monitor present data in different formats, including charts, graphs and tables. You can customise these dashboards based on what you're interested in.
In 2023, there were 542,000 VET enrolments in STEM, an increase of 1% compared to 2022. Of these:
The number of VET STEM enrolments from women increased by 4,000 or 4% from 2022 to 2023. The number of enrolments from men increased by 2,600 or 1%.
Since 2021, the proportion of STEM enrolments from women has remained stable at 17%. This was higher than 2016, when the proportion of STEM enrolments from women was 14%.
From 2022 to 2023, the number of both men and women who completed VET STEM qualifications increased. The proportion of VET STEM completions from women also slightly increased, from 19% in 2022 to 20% in 2023.
Agriculture, environmental and related studies was the only VET STEM field where the proportion of enrolments from women increased each year from 2016 to 2023. The number of enrolments from men in this field in 2023 was 37,000 – the lowest number so far in the time series.
Engineering and related technologies consistently had the most enrolments of all STEM fields. However, women continued to be underrepresented, making up only 12% of all enrolments in engineering and related technologies. Of enrolments for apprentices and trainees in this field, 9% were women, compared to 13% for enrolments who were not apprentices and trainees.
Natural and physical sciences had the highest representation for women in all STEM fields (66% of enrolments in 2023 were women), however it consistently had the least enrolments of all STEM fields.
Among the broad fields of education, STEM had the lowest proportion of women enrolled in VET training as part of an apprenticeship or traineeship. Women made up 10% of STEM enrolments for apprentices and trainees, in comparison to 82% of health and 45% of non-STEM enrolments.
First Nations people represented 6% of enrolments in STEM subjects in 2023, compared to 5% for health, and 6% for non-STEM enrolments. First Nations people account for 3.2% of the Australian population, according to the 2021 Census.
The number of STEM enrolments from First Nations people increased 9% from 2022 to 2023. There have been large increases in the number of STEM apprentice/trainee enrolments and completions among First Nations people. Since 2015, STEM apprentice and trainee enrolments increased 91%, and completions increased 61%.
For some groups, there was lower representation in enrolments in STEM subjects compared to the other fields of education.
For people in regional and remote locations there was higher representation in enrolments in STEM subjects compared to the other fields of education. People in regional and remote locations represented 40% of enrolments in STEM subjects in 2023, compared to 31% for health and 29% for non-STEM enrolments. According to the 2021 Census, 28% of the Australian population lived in regional and remote locations.
Women in some diversity groups were better represented in VET STEM enrolments in 2023:
There was no difference in gender equity of VET STEM enrolments for people in regional or remote locations where 17% of enrolments were women, compared in metropolitan locations where 17% of enrolments were women.
The dataset shows that for VET enrolments, STEM is less popular among non-binary and gender diverse people, who comparatively favour non-STEM fields. In 2023, there was an increase of non-binary and gender diverse people enrolling in VET courses, up from 3,400 in 2022 to 6,900 in 2023. In 2023, 19% of enrolments from non-binary and gender diverse people were in STEM fields, compared to 23% of enrolments from all other students.
| Field type | Non-binary and gender diverse people | All other students* | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no. | % | no. | % | |
| STEM | 1,333 | 19% | 540,765 | 23% |
| Health | 448 | 7% | 152,938 | 7% |
| Non-STEM | 5,103 | 74% | 1,639,000 | 70% |
| Total | 6,884 | 100% | 2,332,703 | 100% |
* All other students includes women, men and people who did not report their gender
Data is for Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) level courses only. Most VET qualifications in this data range from Certificate I to Advanced Diploma, with a small number of Diploma and Graduate Certificate qualifications also included.
Counts in the visualisation show numbers of people enrolling in and completing qualifications in a particular calendar year who provided their demographic/diversity information. Counts only cover domestic students in onshore locations. This includes Australian citizens, New Zealand citizens, Australian permanent residents and Australian humanitarian visa holders.
Enrolment and completion numbers across years do not represent longitudinal data. They should not be used to calculate attrition rates.
Non-binary and gender diverse people are included in the calculation of proportions in the visualisation and are included in the commentary. This group includes students who report a gender other than male or female.
The calculation of proportions also includes people who do not report their demographic/diversity information on their enrolment form (i.e. ‘not known’ and ‘not stated’ groups from the source dataset), however there’s no further analysis on these groups.
Apprenticeships and traineeships are a subset of total enrolments and completions. Students counted as apprentices and trainees have signed a training contract with an employer as part of their VET degree. Students who are not apprentices or trainees are completing a VET degree without the need to complete a training contract.
Data for apprentices and trainees can be shown separately in the visualisation above. Please note the categories (‘Apprentice or trainee’ and ‘Not an apprentice or trainee’) may not sum to the total (‘All’) for completions because the total includes not known.
More information on diversity and location groups is available from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) website.
Read more about our methodology and this data.
