Exploring the impact of vocational training and socio-economic status on a student's result in first year economics

A key driver of Australian Government higher education policy has been the recognition that greater participation in higher education is a central precondition for competitiveness, economic growth and higher living standards. Education reforms have, therefore, sought to offer more diverse and seamless pathways from vocational to higher education and to widen participation from underrepresented social groups. Utilising survey data collected from students studying a core business subject in an Australian dual sector university, this paper seeks to explore the impact that attending TAFE (considered a lower-level qualification gained at a vocational training institution) and socio-economic status have on students' marks. When granulated data on parents' level of education is used to measure SES, our results suggest that TAFE has been used by low SES students as a means of entering higher education. However, TAFE students, especially those from a low SES background, are not performing well. Regression analysis suggests that a student's Australian Tertiary Admission Rank or ATAR (used to compare the overall achievement of students), is the best predictor of their mark. We find that students who entered Higher education via TAFE score a lower mark on average than other students holding ATAR constant. This suggests that TAFE may hinder rather than help a students' performance in the first year of Higher Education. Importantly, we find that low SES students who attended TAFE are more likely to score lower marks than other students who attended TAFE