The number of vocational education and training students in the ACT reached 29,440 last year, an increase of 0.3 per cent.
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The 15 to 19 years age group in the territory jumped by 396 students, a growth rate of 7.1 per cent compared with the national rate of 3.5 per cent.
In the 20 to 24 age group, numbers grew by 6.3 per cent or 397 students.
The figures will be released today in an Australia-wide statistics report from the National Centre for Australian Vocational Education Research.
They will show that while student numbers in the 15 to 24 age group are contracting nationally as a proportion of the total working age population, the ACT has seen considerable increase.
Indigenous VET student numbers grew from 699 in 2010 to 729 last year, an increase of 3.4 per cent. Since 2008 the number of indigenous VET students in the ACT has increased by 66.1 per cent. The national increase over the same period was only 18.6 per cent.
And the number of students with a disability increased by 22 per cent from 2008 to last year.
Management and commerce were the top choices for VET students in the ACT last year, closely followed by society and culture; and food, hospitality and personal services.
The vast majority of students (75.7 per cent) remain enrolled at the Canberra Institute of Technology.
But international full-fee paying VET student numbers dropped in the territory last year by 19.7 per cent from the year before to 1009.
The ACT's Education and Training Minister Chris Bourke said the statistics show an overall growth in the completion of high-level Australian Qualification Framework qualifications and actual student numbers. He said they show that the VET sector has not been significantly affected by the contraction of the international VET student market.
''Our tertiary education sector continues to be well positioned to cater for the growing numbers of regional domestic students,'' Dr Bourke said.
''The growth in disability and youth numbers shows that the extra $3.2 million of funding in the budget for disability and youth support services at CIT has been well-targeted.
''It's great to see the increasing number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students skilling up in the ACT.''
AQF qualifications completed in the ACT from 2007 and 2010 grew by 15 per cent, from 8000 to 9000.