Australian vocational education and training (VET) data looks at enrolments and completions for women and men by field of education.
This includes STEM courses in:
- agriculture, environmental and related studies
- engineering and related technologies
- information technology
- natural and physical sciences.
VET enrolment and completion
Compare VET enrolment and completion numbers for women and men in STEM fields, non-STEM fields and health fields.
Data insights
The number of women enrolled in STEM vocational education and training has been steadily increasing since 2018.
The proportion of women VET STEM enrolments remained relatively stable at 16% in 2020.
The total number of completions in VET STEM qualifications in 2020 decreased from 2019, mostly due to a decrease in completions by men.
The proportion of women completing VET STEM qualifications remained stable at 19% in 2020. This has risen by 3 percentage points since 2015.
More women enrolling in agriculture, environmental and related studies
19,790 women enrolled in VET agriculture, environmental and related studies in 2020. Women made up 32% of all students in the field, up 3 percentage points from 2019 and 7 percentage points from 2015. The proportion of women completing courses in this field also increased by 4 percentage points from 2015 to 2020.
This was the only VET STEM field where the proportion of women enrolments rose consistently across the years 2015–2020. There were no notable changes in the other STEM fields.
Natural and physical sciences remained the VET STEM field with the greatest proportion of women enrolments (65%) and completions (66%) in 2020. These proportions have remained between 61% and 73% every year from 2015 to 2020.
Engineering remained the least popular VET STEM field for women in 2020. Women have made up 10% or less of enrolments in this field since 2015.
About the data
The majority of VET qualifications in this data range from certificate I to advanced diploma, with a very small number of diploma and graduate certificate qualifications also included
Enrolment and completion numbers refer to women and men enrolling in and completing qualifications in a particular calendar year. They only cover domestic students: Australian citizens, New Zealand citizens, Australian permanent residents and Australian humanitarian visa holders.
Enrolment and completion numbers across years do not represent longitudinal data. You should not use them to determine completion or attrition rates.
A small number of students report a gender other than male or female or do not report a gender on their enrolment form. This has ranged between 1% to 4% across VET STEM enrolments and completions in the reporting periods 2015 to 2020. The proportion calculations on this page only include students who reported their gender as male or female.
Read more about our methodology and this data.