Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2010
Volume
18
Journal
Education Economics
Issue
4
First Page
377
Last Page
394
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1080/09645290903546587
Abstract
The vocational education and training (VET) sector is a major pathway to postschool education for indigenous students, yet questions are being raised about the capacity of the VET system to provide successful outcomes for the indigenous apprentices and trainees it attracts. Within a system plagued by high cancellation rates in general, indigenous apprentices appear to do particularly badly. This paper combines data from an administrative database on apprenticeship with income data from the 2001 Census of Population and Housing to provide an analysis of attrition rates for apprenticeship training contracts in Queensland, asking: Are cancellation rates for indigenous students significantly higher than those for nonindigenous students, and, if so, what factors are responsible for this?
