HUNTER students who started TAFE or vocational training at school are using their courses to enter the workforce or as a stepping stone to university.
St Paul's Catholic College Booragul VET and careers leader of learning Craig McLoughlin said about 70 of the school's 105 students applied to the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) and of these, about 58 received early entry offers, most of them conditional on receiving certain ATARs.
He said only 10 per cent of students received early offers five or six years ago. However, he said, overall there had been a recent decrease in the number of students applying to UAC.
"It's not dramatic but it's probably five per cent, 10 per cent [down] where in the previous say 10 years it was going up by five per cent per year, that was the only place to be, that was the only ticket in town, was the tertiary pathway," he said.
"I've seen that that's declined because of the job market opening up... a lot of students are either deferring; or just going out and getting [TAFE] qualifications; or just going straight into the workforce.
"Because the pathways into university are so diverse and varied they're not having to rely on direct entry and using their ATARs anymore... [most] will end up there anyway, but they've decided they've going to have a gap year or they're going to get a qualification or finish the qualification they started at school.
"Those certificates three or four will get them into university in various degrees without having to use their ATAR."
Mr McLoughlin said students who completed vocational training were often gaining "soft employment skills that employers want upfront rather than the knowledge based information students would glean from a degree" and were ready for the workforce.
He said about 70 per cent of students who completed school based apprenticeships and traineeships were guaranteed jobs and 12 of this year's non ATAR students had received early offers through a range of schemes.
TAFE NSW has credit transfer arrangements for more than 150 of its courses for students to gain entry to university.
Its own qualifications include degrees and graduate certificates and it will offer next semester a Bachelor of Creative Practice (specialising in Visual Arts) at the Hunter Street campus and the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education and Care at Glendale. It also offers a Certificate IV in Tertiary Preparation as an alternative to year 12, which gives students a Tertiary Entry Score that UAC recognises.
Mr McLoughlin said students had more time to think during the pandemic about "who they are and what they liked to do" and were "making sure what they want to do is really what they want to do rather than just enrol in uni, get into a degree and [change later]".
He said it was important for those taking gap years to have a plan.
"They're employed, they've got over 20 hours of work, they've got some other interests, they're doing something... make sure you're productive, make sure you keep learning, even get that Responsible Service of Alcohol and Responsible Conduct of Gambling, get your first aid, go and do something different."
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