Purpose: In the wake of a skills shortage in Australia and its impact on the economy, the need for students to complete their vocational education and training (VET) programmes and enter the workforce is critical. This study aims to identify to what degree student programme choice and perceived personal benefits as well as various confounders act as determinants of student satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses data from the Australian Student Outcome Survey to quantify the gain or loss in satisfaction conditional on whether a specific personal benefit was received from the training. Findings: The results show that when students acquire personal benefits through their VET training, overall student satisfaction has a relationship with the nature of the personal benefit received. This may be a determinant of future enrolments and should thus be important to VET providers and policymakers for their planning and institutional priority setting. Originality/value: To our knowledge, this paper is the first that quantifies the relationship between the satisfaction of graduates from VET and a variety of personal benefits received from vocational training.