There is a narrative that has been around for a while tagging technical/vocational education as a last resort after one fails to advance in formal education. The other was that it’s the cheaper option if one failed to raise the tuition for instance to finish high school or to join university or if one had dropped out of school. This type of education has often been categorised as an option for intellectually inferior students and associated with “unpopular” blue-collar employment. The perception has been deeply ingrained in people that parents regarded their children as failures and in disappointment ‘dumped’ them into the technical/vocational schools.
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International students continue to shun Australia
Late last year, the Morrison Government announced reforms to visa arrangements to ensure a “rapid return of international students”.
The reforms included:
- granting a two year Temporary Graduate visa to Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector graduates; and
- extending the temporary graduate visa from two to three years for masters by coursework graduates.
According to the latest arrivals data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), released yesterday, student arrivals have failed to rebound, with only 28,290 arriving in the three months to March 2022.
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