Non-school qualifications
Non-school qualifications are educational attainments other than those of pre-primary, primary or secondary education qualifications.
New South Wales has the highest number and second-highest proportion of people aged 15-64 with a non-school qualification of all Australian states. Almost 2.9 million people, or 58% of all working-age residents in the state, hold non-school qualifications.
Tertiary education
For tertiary qualifications, defined as certificate level III and above, almost 53% of the State's residents aged 15-64, or 2.6 million people, are tertiary educated.
Two of NSW's 11 universities - the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales, are ranked in the top 200 in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013-14.
Around 1.3 million working-age people in New South Wales hold a bachelor or higher degree as at May 2013.
The State is also home to 36 non-university higher education providers including:
- the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)
- the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and
- TAFE (Technical and Further Education) New South Wales Higher Education.
TAFE NSW
TAFE New South Wales, the state's public vocational education and training (VET) provider, began delivering higher education qualifications in 2012. The largest VET provider in Australia, TAFE NSW comprises 10 institutes (four metropolitan and six regional) spanning more than 130 campuses across the state, and has over 550,000 enrolments each year.
Registered training organisations
There is also a large sector of private, industry, community based and other public registered training organisations (RTOs) that participate in the delivery of vocational training in the state.
These RTOs are registered with the appropriate national or state government bodies and provide quality-assured and nationally recognised training and qualifications that address the skills and workforce development needs of industry and the community. There are currently around 5,000 RTOs in Australia.
| Qualification | NSW | VIC | QLD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor degree or higher | 1,294.0 | 1086.4 | 638.6 |
| Postgraduate degree | 282.7 | 211.6 | 126.5 |
| Graduate diploma/graduate certificate | 108.9 | 132.3 | 78.4 |
| Bachelor degree | 902.4 | 742.5 | 433.7 |
| Advanced diploma/diploma level | 481.1 | 384.6 | 277.0 |
| Certificate level | 1,039.7 | 788.4 | 780.7 |
| Certificate lll/lV | 839.0 | 649.2 | 656.0 |
| Certificate l/ll | 168.8 | 109.0 | 100.4 |
| Certificate not further defined | 31.9 | 30.2 | 24.3 |
| Total with non-school qualifications3 | 2,887.6 | 2,275.9 | 1,708.3 |
| Without non-school qualifications | 2,057.2 | 1,597.1 | 1,434.9 |
| Total | 4,944.7 | 3,873.0 | 3,143.2 |
| % with non-school qualifications4 | 58.4 | 58.8 | 54.3 |
| Qualification | WA | Other2 | Australia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor degree or higher | 380.9 | 191.0 | 3,816.2 |
| Postgraduate degree | 65.3 | 39.6 | 769.9 |
| Graduate diploma/graduate certificate | 45.6 | 25.6 | 417.4 |
| Bachelor degree | 270.0 | 125.8 | 2,628.9 |
| Advanced diploma/diploma level | 160.3 | 64.7 | 1,468.9 |
| Certificate level | 404.4 | 164.6 | 3,452.4 |
| Certificate lll/lV | 335.4 | 133.3 | 2,837.2 |
| Certificate l/ll | 56.0 | 28.5 | 506.3 |
| Certificate not further defined | 13.0 | 2.8 | 108.9 |
| Total with non-school qualifications3 | 954.2 | 426.9 | 8,857.5 |
| Without non-school qualifications | 738.2 | 307.6 | 6,631.5 |
| Total | 1,692.4 | 734.6 | 15,489.0 |
| % with non-school qualifications4 | 56.4 | 58.1 | 57.2 |
Footnotes:
- Excludes overseas residents in Australia, members of the permanent defence forces, institutionalised persons and boarding school pupils
- Includes Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory
- Includes 'level not determined' which is not shown separately
- Persons with non-school qualifications as a percentage of total persons aged 15-64
Source: ABS Cat. No. 6227.0, Education and Work, Australia, May 2013.