4250.0.55.005 - Perspectives on Education and Training: Australians with qualifications in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), 2010–11 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/02/2014  First Issue
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QUALIFICATIONS IN HEALTH

While the Health field of study does not fall within the definition of STEM used in this analysis, there is considerable overlap in the skills and knowledge that come from an education in Health and those developed in STEM fields. The following section outlines the characteristics of Australians with higher level Health qualifications.

Of the 17.7 million people in Australia aged 15 years and over in 2010-11, around 1.1 million (6%) had completed a Certificate III or above in the field of Health. Of these, three quarters (76%) had only one Health qualification, 18% had two Health qualifications, and a further 6% had three or more.

The vast majority (942,500 or 88%) of this group indicated that a Health qualification was their highest non-school qualification. The remaining 123,500 (12%) reported that their highest qualification was in a different field.

Almost two-thirds (62%) of people with higher level Health qualifications had a university level qualification in Health, including 12% whose highest degree was at the postgraduate level, and 50% whose highest Health qualification was a Bachelor degree to Graduate diploma. A further 23% reported a Diploma or Advanced diploma as their highest Health qualification, and 15% a Certificate III or IV.



HIGHEST LEVEL OF HEALTH QUALIFICATION, 2010-11
Graph: shows that around half of the 1.1 million people with qualification in Health had a Bachelor degree to Graduate diploma as their highest Health qualification.

Source: ABS Survey of Learning and Work, 2010-11.

Of those with higher level qualifications in Health, close to a third (29%) also had qualifications in another field. Society and culture was the most common field of study other than Health (11%) among this group, followed by Management and commerce (9%). Around 7% of those with Health qualifications also had a Certificate III or above in a STEM field.

In contrast to the STEM fields, women accounted for around three quarters (76%) of those with higher level Health qualifications. Women made up the majority of Health graduates across all levels of qualification, though the proportion of females was higher among those whose highest Health qualification was at the Certificate III or IV level (82%) than at the postgraduate level (63%).

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

The median age of those with Health qualifications (46 years) was slightly higher than that of both the STEM qualified population (44 years), and those with qualifications in other fields (41 years). Just over half (52%) of those with Health qualifications were aged 45 years and over, compared with 42% of those with qualifications in other non-STEM fields.
      POPULATION WITH NON-STEM QUALIFICATIONS, BY AGE AND FIELD, 2010-11
    Graph: shows that the age profile of people with Health qualifications was older (i.e. more weighted towards the older age groups) than those with qualifications in other non-STEM fields.
    (a) Other than STEM fields.
    Source: ABS Survey of Learning and Work, 2010-11.


    Just over two thirds (69%) of those with higher level Health qualifications were born in Australia. Of the 325,500 people with Health qualifications born outside Australia, the most common birthplace was the United Kingdom (23%). The majority (70%) of those born overseas were Australian citizens, and almost all (98%) reported that they spoke English well or very well.

    The vast majority (87%) of those with higher level Health qualifications had attained a Health qualification in Australia, and around one in six (16%) had a Health qualification attained in another country. Of those who were born overseas and came to Australia aged 15 years and over, two-thirds (66%) had a Health qualification attained in another country.