Graduates with vocational education and training (VET) qualifications report on their employment and income outcomes.
VET graduate outcomes
Compare income, employment outcomes and training relevance for women and men with qualifications in STEM fields, non-STEM fields and health fields over different years.
Data insights
Training relevance
In 2022, 63% of women VET STEM graduates reported their training had some or high relevance to their jobs, a similar number to 2021. However, a higher proportion of men than women reported their training was somewhat or highly relevant to their jobs (76% of men compared to 63% of women).
STEM graduates were more likely to report their training was highly relevant to their job than non‑STEM graduates (50% compared to 47%) or health graduates (50% compared to 48%).
However, the proportion of women natural and physical sciences graduates reporting their training was highly relevant to the job increased 7 percentage points between 2021 and 2022. The proportion of men in this field who thought their training was highly relevant decreased 11 percentage points over the same period.
In each of the years from 2017 to 2022, the proportion of STEM women graduates who reported their training had some or high relevance to their jobs was lower than the proportion of STEM men graduates. This proportion was also lower for women in health fields.
Improved employment outcomes
In 2022, the proportion of women whose employment outcomes improved (by gaining employment or being employed at a higher skill level) after graduating in a VET STEM field increased. This proportion was 58% in 2022 compared to 52% in 2021. However, this was still lower than the proportion of men whose employment outcomes improved (67%).
The proportion of women graduates reporting improved employment outcomes increased significantly from 2021 to 2022 in every STEM field except agriculture, environmental and related studies:
- In natural and physical sciences, the proportion of women with improved outcomes increased 11 percentage points.
- In engineering and related technologies it increased 7 percentage points.
- In information technology it increased 6 percentage points.
In 2022, information technology graduates had the lowest improvement in employment outcomes, with just 42% of women and 42% of men reporting improved employment outcomes. At least 50% of graduates in all other STEM fields said their employment outcomes improved.
Across all VET courses, 65% of women and 66% of men reported improved employment outcomes in 2022. That’s an increase of 6 percentage points for women and 4 percentage points for men compared to 2021, both statistically significant improvements.
Income
Across all VET STEM fields, women’s median full-time annual income was $55,000 in 2022, an increase from $52,000 in 2021. Men’s median full-time annual income was $67,000, up from $60,000 in 2021. The larger increase in income for men saw the income gap for VET graduates widen in 2022.
Women’s median full-time annual income after graduating from information technology was $62,000 in 2022. This was $2,000 more than men, not a statistically significant difference.
The largest median full-time annual income gap between men and women in STEM was $10,000, in natural and physical sciences as well as engineering and related technologies.
In 2022, the median full-time annual income for people entering the workforce from all VET fields was $54,000 for women and $68,000 for men. These were significant increases from $52,000 for women and $62,000 for men in 2021.
About the data
The information is derived from the National Student Outcomes Survey, an annual survey of those who fully or partially completed training in Australia during the previous calendar year. 235,678 VET students responded to the 2022 survey.
The survey collects information on VET students’:
- reasons for training
- employment outcomes
- satisfaction with training
- further study outcomes.
The data in the visualisation covers graduates with an Australian residential address.
Sampling variance means you should not compare results across time and between groups in the same year.
Differences between results reported on this page are statistically significant unless otherwise indicated. This means that the differences are due to more than just random chance.
Income values have been rounded and are presented as medians.
Read about VET statistics on the NCVER website.
Read more about our methodology and this data.