Education & Training
Industry Overview
Education and Training is one of Australia’s fastest-growing industries.
The Australian education sector is widely considered a vital resource to Australian society and has also become a USD 14.66 billion export industry that attracts international students from far and wide.
There are more than 1,200 educational institutions in Australia, offering around 22,000 courses on subjects ranging from engineering to cake decoration. While the funding, operation, and regulation of educational institutions are generally left for Australia’s states and territories, all qualifications must meet the requirements of the federal Australian Qualifications Framework if they are to receive accreditation.
The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) identified a shortage of teachers in secondary subjects including IT, physics, mathematics, general science, chemistry, and biology, with 25% of students in years 7 to 10 taught maths by a teacher not trained in the subject area. If you're studying STEM, this shortage will make a STEM background extremely appealing to schools and recruiters.
Market Size
The market size of the Education and Training industry is expected to decline -1.9% in 2021.
The market size of the Education and Training industry in Australia has grown 0.2% per year on average between 2016 and 2021.
Facts and figures
Australia has an outstanding higher education system. With over 22,000 courses across 1,100 institutions, our system is ranked 8th in the Universitas 2019 U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems, higher than France, Germany, Norway, and Japan.
Education is compulsory for Australian children aged between 6 and 16. More students have stayed past age 16 to finish their schooling over the past five years. Growth in the school-age population positively influences demand for government and private schools, alongside VET courses. The population aged between 5 and 18 is expected to increase in 2020-21, providing an opportunity for the division to expand.
The Australian Government has invested more than A$300 (USD 219.90) million in scholarships for international students.
More than 2.5 million of Australia’s international alumni are making a global difference. Australian universities have produced 15 Nobel laureates.
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) evaluation in 2006 ranked the Australian education system as sixth for reading, eighth for science, and thirteenth for mathematics, on a worldwide scale including 56 countries.
In 2012, education firm Pearson ranked Australian education as 13th in the world.
Approximately 40% of school-going children are enrolled in private or independent schools.
The future of education
Trends
The rise of online educational programs
With many colleges pushing content to the web, allowing students and teachers to learn in virtually any location. This has created a new market for teaching jobs with private companies, such as The Teaching Company and Coursera, which record and distribute digital lectures.
Integrating virtual with digital
During this pandemic most of the education was shifted to virtual by using the techniques like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, like other industries the education and training industry also started using these techniques and modernising the industry.
- Automated algorithms can save time by checking assignments faster than it takes for any human. Examples include plagiarism checkers used by educational institutions, AI writing assistants, writing apps, and platforms like customised dissertation writing services.
- EdTech AI solutions can also be used to identify the main problems and obstacles students face while learning, systemise them, and help improve their education ecosystem. Customisation has become an important educational trend, and this is where ML solutions will save time and improve the efficiency of education.
Digitise education experiences
Digitalisation in the education industry is accelerating; because of the pandemic's influence, many industries, including education, are moving toward digitisation.
Robotics
In education, robots and artificial intelligence applications are helping to design more flexible teaching and learning systems that will benefit all students but especially those with physical, sensory, or mental disabilities. For example, “smart” personal assistants such as Siri by Apple, which can be used on every one of the brand’s devices, help students accomplish many tasks by voice command. This will be especially useful for learners who have trouble seeing their screens or typing on their keyboards.
Growing student acceptance of online study.
Due to Covid-19, many institutions have transitioned from campus-based courses to online delivery and so the experience and benefits of online study are more universally understood.
Rising parent engagement
The parent’s engagement was increasing during the pandemic, and this is giving an option for the parents to choose the right education for their kids at the right time.
Learning designed by data
Most of the corporate companies are approaching this technique to train their employees and this will help their employees to be mentally and physically strong in the long run.
The wellbeing focus
In the last 5 years, almost half of parents (48%) have increased their expectations of their child’s school to support wellbeing. More than one in four (27%) have significantly or somewhat increased their expectations. Schools need to understand parents’ expectations and the school’s role in the wellbeing journey. Almost all parents surveyed (97%) believe schools should have a holistic focus and play some role in the management of wellbeing, the question is to what extent.
Preparing students for an unknown future
The expected rise of automation has led to a focus on developing 21st-century skills for lifelong learning in Australian students. Within this context, parents believe students are most equipped with digital skills and creativity. There is work to do, however, in the area of critical thinking.
Complexity in education
Looking to the future, principals see change on the horizon as the educational sector trends towards complexity. Principals believe global testing has a limited life and are watching the trend of alternate pathways to university and the workforce. Complexity in governance and the growing compliance requirements is a challenge for principals: from high-level policy and accountability to teacher accreditation, principals and Gen Y teachers alike are experiencing the challenge of documentation.
Attracting and retaining the emerging generation of teachers
There has been a concern about the dropout rate of teachers, and how to continue to attract teachers in an increasingly flexible world of work. While teachers enter the profession for multiple reasons, the key driver behind their decision is to make a difference in the lives of their students. The students and their desire to make a difference is the driving force that retains them when the going gets tough. The holidays and the ability for family time, however, continue to be a key perk of the job.
Risks
Fewer students coming in than going out
Most of the economy from the education and training industry shrank because of the Covid-19 crisis, as most international students shied away from Australian colleges as a career alternative.
- In the 2019 calendar year, international education contributed more than $40 billion (USD29.21) to the Australian economy. At the end of December 2020, 158,014 out of 543,522 visa holders were not in the country. This means they will not be spending in the wider Australian economy.
Covid- 19 Impact
The impact of Covid-19 changed the entire era of the industry and shifted towards safety than any other. This resulted in new thoughts and alternatives for the betterment in the education sector, but these also have some risks which are as follows:
- Increased level of oversight required from parents and carers (particularly for younger children).
- Reduced one-to-one engagement with teachers.
- Difficulty in ascertaining engagement levels of students.
- Restricted ability to monitor individual student progress.
- Cyber Security also became a concern for the process because of the theft of personal information from the IoT devices that are being used for the online training classes.
- The lack of technical knowledge, as this is new for the industry, the skilled trainers or teachers are required to use the techniques in virtual classes.
- Increased social isolation and reduced ability to support student wellbeing.
- Interruption to learning support for those children with additional needs
differential levels of access to technology, including the internet and devices, to support learning.
Remote learning
Difficulty with implementing school-led remote learning across the country is further complicated by differences across state and territory jurisdictions, across school sectors (e.g. government and non-government), and across individual schools.
Reducing the ‘long tail’ of underachievement
The Australian government and universities are concentrating their efforts on reducing the long tail of underachievement to provide students with the best and most practical education possible to help them develop a future-ready job.
Designing a 21st-century curriculum
There are several grounds to doubt the curriculum's ability to prepare pupils for life and work in the twenty-first century. Because kids above the age of 15 are unable to pick what they want to do for a career, most pupils are interested in engineering, science, technology, and maths to advance in a competitive environment.
Raising the status of the teaching profession
The Australian government is planning in many ways, similar to other countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong, where teachers are recruited from the top 30% of school leavers whereas as Finland and South Korea the teachers was taken from top 10%, to raise the status of teaching as a career choice, attract more able people into teaching, and develop teaching as a knowledge-based profession.
Australian teens are falling behind, as others race ahead
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study evaluates the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old pupils from over 70 countries. It also indicates that since 2000, Australian 15-year-olds' reading, arithmetic, and scientific literacy skills have decreased statistically significantly, whilst other countries have improved.
Although dropping worldwide rankings have received a lot of attention in the media, it is this drop in real scores that should make the news. This is because students in 2000 successfully answered significantly more questions than students in 2012. The drop is the equivalent of more than a half-year of education.
Conclusion
Australia has a good education and training system across the globe. But this system has shown more attention towards the international students than the students of the home country.
There are some drawbacks due to the covid-19 as the economy seems to decline for this industry due to global restrictions on transportation facilities.
- Overall Australia saw 207,773 fewer international enrolments this year across all sectors. Other point-in-time statistics revealed that between July 2020 to March 2021, the total number of enrolled international students in Australia had dropped 21%, while the percentage of enrolled students overseas had leaped 82%.
Most Australian students place a lower priority on mathematics, advanced science, and technology than the global average. The government and universities are paying attention to this, and universities are exhibiting increased interest in teacher recruiting, which has resulted in the top 30 percent from institutions.
The government also started taking measures in the improvement of the education system and wellbeing of the students as most of the parents are focussing more on the real-time education for their kids for their future careers.
Adaption of new techniques in the system is adding an advantage overall for the growth of the economy and attracting the international students to opt for better education in the country as the government provides good facilities for the international students in the country.
Real-time learning and good teachers have added advantages for better education as most of the states are aligned in recruiting the best knowledge teachers for the kids and teens in the schools and universities.
The universities are also able to identify the shortage of teachers and drawbacks in the system and take the necessary measures in addressing the areas of shortfall.
Risk Outlook:
Emerging risks that will impact your organisation.
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