1. Making the links between quality training, graduate destinations and building alumni in TAFE Kate Dempsey Victorian TAFE International

2. My presentation will cover… 1.Context - International education history 2.Victorian TAFE International (VTI) 3.Our research into graduate destinations 4.What we found 5.Recommendations

3. International students in Australia 50 yrs of international education as ‘aid’ 25 yrs of international education as ‘trade’ More than 300,000 international students studying in all sectors across Australia last year Nearly 100,000 international students study VET in Australia Source AEI Dec 2011

4. What do we know of their destinations? There are no publicly available, system- wide studies of the international graduates of vocational education and training (VET) courses across Australia.

5. Victorian TAFE International VTI is an association of 13 TAFEs and 3 dual sector universities in Victoria Professional development body Collaborative research

6. Our research September 2011, we interviewed staff in each member institute Regional providers – one did exit survey, one re-vamping theirs, others follow up directly Metro providers – 4 did a destination survey and 4 did not.

7. Issues raised by our findings Who manages surveying of international students at institute level? Student IDs Lack of systemic data Limited focus on alumni

8. Our Conclusions No systemic surveying of international graduate destinations among VTI members an understanding of its usefulness a willingness to undertake graduate destination surveying BUT highlighting obstacles to implementation at the institute level.

9. Thank you The research report is called Keeping in Touch and is available for purchase on our website www.vti.edu.au