The purpose of this research was to establish the relationship between socio-economic status and participation and achievement in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. The research investigated the extent to which training opportunities provided by the public VET system are taken up by people from different socio-economic backgrounds.
There is a considerable body of Australian and international literature on the relationship between socio-economic status and education, with previous research identifying a strong relationship between socio-economic status and education participation and achievement in both the secondary and higher education sectors. In general, the research has found that students from higher socio-economic backgrounds have greater participation and achievement in these education sectors than students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. However, the limited research on socio-economic status and the VET sector suggests that this is not the case in the VET sector.