The VET landscape in which these young people learn is plagued by a lack of clarity, which makes a critical discussion of the role of VET for young people imperative. This included more than 242 000 students undertaking VET in Schools and more than 147 000 who had left school prior to completing a senior secondary certificate and who were undertaking vocational education at a TAFE institute or a private registered training organisation (RTO) (NCVER 2012a NCVER 2012b). In 2012 the number of 15 to 19-year-olds participating in vocational education and training in Australia exceeded 488 100 (NCVER 2013). The same can also be said of these degrees offered by public and private VET providers. One effect of this partnering is that student equity agendas are often diminished and sometimes absent altogether from the operations of VET-provider associate and bachelor degrees. The third category involves a blurring of boundaries between public and private providers, as well as between VET and HE provision. In contrast, this report identifies three categories of VET providers of HE: private, public and ‘partnered’.

established by state/territory governments). The Australian Government and its agency – the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) – registers VET providers that also offer higher education (HE), as other private providers (OPPs) of HE, irrespective of whether or not they are public providers of VET (i.e. It is particularly concerned with the impact for disadvantaged learners of associate and bachelor degrees offered by vocational education and training (VET) providers. This report on VET Providers, Associate and Bachelor Degrees, and Disadvantaged Learners,1 is derived from research commissioned by the National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC) and conducted by researchers at Deakin University and the University of Ballarat.

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