Tasmanian VET sector ranked in Australian Government report

The latest report on government services, released on Monday, showed a breakdown of 11 indicators of vocational education success and ranked each state, along with a comparison of funding.

While it found that student satisfaction had improved - Tasmanian students' satisfaction with vocational education was sitting at 89 per cent - the same could not be said for employers' feelings.

The data showed that employer satisfaction with the VET system in Tasmania had decreased from 74 per cent in 2017 to 65 per cent in 2019, which is the latest data collected for the report.

Keen Partners' Ray Mostogl said Tasmania had a higher reliance than other states on vocational education, and that reliance was only increasing.

"We don't have Silicon Valley here, we have a lot of people doing things with their hands, providing services or making things," he said.

"The sector is critical in filling a large slice of positions required to replace those who are retiring, but also for new and emerging industries, such as hydrogen."

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He said the majority of the apprentices supported by Keen Partners were satisfied with their training, and something that was often overlooked was the teachers.

"The teachers are often exposed to experience from lots of different employers in their industry, so have a breadth of experience that opens up our apprentices minds," Mr Mostogl said.

The report also showed that Tasmania was lagging behind other states for completion rates, with only 27 qualifications per 1000 completed in 2019.

This is a drop from 34 per 1000 completions in 2017.

Rates of completion in Tasmania were the lowest of all states, including the Northern Territory and was well below the national average of 44 per 1000 qualifications.

Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff said the report showed Tasmania had performed well on key indicators including overall satisfaction and funding.

"Funding increased by 3.5 per cent in 2019 to $150 million compared to the previous year," he said.

"It also shows 72.6 per cent of government-funded graduates in Tasmania improved their employment status after training."

Mr Rockliff said the state government's commitment to the federal government's JobTrainer program was "paying off" and supporting Tasmanians into jobs.