At aXcelerate, we rely heavily upon what we call “KPIs (“Key Performance Indicators”) to measure our success. When contrasted with our weaknesses, we can also use KPIs to map out a road for improvement. All in all, performance indicators are a useful—and vital—part of business.
What are some performance indicators for training businesses in the VET sector? We’ve taken an excerpt from a study released by NCVER and shared it with you below:
1. Student Characteristics
AKA: the number of students, distribution of students by age and sex, proportion of students who are Indigenous, proportion of students who have a disability, proportion of students who completed school, proportion of students who are international, proportion of students from a non-English speaking background, proportion of students who have a previous non-school qualification, and the proportion of students who completed Year 12.
2. Training Characteristics
Distribution of student by field of education, distribution of students by qualification level, full-year training equivalents, number of states in which training is delivered, number of sites of delivery, number of qualifications registered to deliver, fee levels, and the proportion of income from fee-for-service activity.
3. Provider Characteristics
Number of staff, number of staff by field of education, number of staff by age, and length of operation.
4. Amenities and services
Distance to public transport, the number of car parking spaces, extent of financial assistance to students (including extent of campus employment), size of library, access to internet, level of pastoral care (student support services per student).
5. RTO Management
Capital reserves and assets.
6. Efficiency
Module pass rate, qualification completion rate, proportion of recognition of prior learning (RPL) granted, time taken to complete a course, cost per publicly funded full year training equivalent (FYTE), share of cost to employers providing apprenticeships and other types of training, private spending by the student on a VET course, administrative and support costs per student or FYTE, salaries and salary related costs, turnover, operating expenses, and operating revenues.
7. Quality of Teaching and Learning Indicators
Student: teacher ratio, proportion of trainers with Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (TAE), proportion of trainers with degrees or diplomas in teaching/training, level of staff satisfaction and motivation levels, level of staff engagement in professional development, adequate facilities and equipment (measured by age of plant), number of complaints/black marks, innovation measure—share of information and communications technology (ICT) training activities, proportion of delivery subcontracted, occupational health and safety incidences, transition paths from VET in schools—proportion of VET in schools students who continue in VET post-school, policies or descriptive effective NCVER practices on articulation with higher education, the proportion of students enrolled in higher education who receive credit for VET or who were admitted based on previous VET, the proportion of graduates enrolled in further study, proportion of VET by online delivery, proportion of delivery at the workplace, proportion of delivery in the classroom, proportion of graduates who report that training was relevant, extent of collaboration with industry, student attendance at institution, student participation in extracurricular activities, and extent of practices to improve program quality (for example, institution wide use of assessment results to improve program quality).
8. Consumer Satisfaction
Overall satisfaction with the course, satisfaction of graduates with teacher quality, satisfaction with learning outcomes, whether a student achieved main goal, whether a student would recommend the institution, satisfaction of employers with training, satisfaction of graduates with teaching facilities, and satisfaction of graduates with assessment quality.
9. Labour Market Effectiveness
Employment rate of graduates, employment rate of graduates of those not employed before training, level of match between course and job after training, proportion of graduates reporting their training was relevant to their job, salary of full-time workers after training, literacy rate.
The NCVER team would like to reiterate that this list is in no way exhaustive, but we thought it’d be a good start! If you’d like to read the full report, you can do so here.