Australians becoming more skilled: ABS

Australia's workforce is becoming more skilled, with women leading the way in
gaining added qualifications, a report says.
The likelihood of women having a non-school qualification overtook that of men
during the past decade, the Australian Bureau of Statistics report on social trends
in education and training says.
"Over recent decades, there has been a steady increase in the proportion of the
working-age population with higher education or vocational qualifications," the
report said.
In 2009, nine in every 10 professionals held a non-school qualification, with 44 per
cent holding a bachelor's degree and 28 per cent having a postgraduate or graduate
diploma.
Among all workers aged 15-64 years, fully 66 per cent or about 6.7 million people
had a non-school qualification, up from 59 per cent in 2001.
Of them, 35 per cent had a certificate and 24 per cent had a bachelor's degree.
The report also noted a rising tendency for workers to have several qualifications -
up from 22 per cent in 2001 to 28 per cent in 2009.
"This shows that in addition to increasing qualification levels, there is likely to
be a deepening and broadening of skills within Australia's workforce."
From 2001 to 2009, the proportion of women with a non-school qualification rose from
58 per cent to 67 per cent, while among men the figure rose from 60 per cent to 65
per cent.
Of the 34 per cent of workers without a non-school qualification in 2009, most
tended to be older workers.
In 2009, the most popular fields of study were business and management, human
welfare studies, teaching, accounting and nursing.
A total of 1.5 million workers were studying for a formal non-school qualification,
and 40 per cent of them did not have a non-school qualification.
Work-related training is viewed as crucial for ensuring Australia's long-term
productivity growth, the report said.
Public-sector workers did more work-related training than those in the private
sector, and 85per cent of those who did such training said they gained new skills
and knowledge from at least one of their courses.



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