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In recent years, vocational education and training programs have been introduced into senior secondary schools, increasing the focus on workplace experience and workplace learning. This research, funded by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) forms part of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), studying the progress of several groups of young Australians as they move from school into post-secondary education and/or work. The report examines the extent of students' participation in work experience, school-industry and other workplace learning programs and contrasts students' beliefs about the value of their experiences in part-time jobs compared to work experience. It provides current national estimates of the number of Year 10 and Year 11 students participating in work experience and workplace learning programs and analyses participation by state, influence of background factors, the role of and participation in workplace learning programs and covers the outcomes of workplace learning programs.

The increasing emphasise on and expansion of education and the importance of qualifications raises the issue of what happens to those who do not complete their secondary school education. This report, focusing on early school leaving in Australia forms part of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) research program. It focuses on students who leave school before the beginning of Year 11. The first part of the paper examines the social and demographic characteristics of early school leavers. The second part reports on the reasons for early school leaving and the third part of the study compares school leaving with social background, demographic, social and attitudinal factors. It also focuses on the effect of individual schools on early school leaving. The final section of the study examines the post-school activities of early school leavers focusing on their labour force participation.

Failure to attain basic skills of literacy and numeracy is a major educational and social issue. This report investigates the relationships between school achievement at the age of 14 years, social background and labour market outcomes at 19 years of age. It uses longitudinal data from the Australian Youth Survey to examine outcomes such as patterns of employment (and unemployment), income and post-secondary education and training. The study found strong relationships between reading comprehension and numeracy achievement at age 14 and the likelihood of completing school, entering university and employment status at age 19. It also affected the type of work and pay young people have at age 19.

This report forms part of the research program Longitudinal surveys of Australian youth (LSAY), conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and financially supported by the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA).

At the request of the Minister for Schools and Vocational Education national patterns and trends in reading comprehension and numeracy over the time period from This report examines the performance, and levels of mastery, on tests of reading comprehension and numeracy of Australian students in junior secondary school between 1975 and 1995. Data for the analyses reported were drawn from two national monitoring studies and other studies of representative samples of junior secondary school students designed to monitor the progress of young people through school into further education, training and work. In each of the studies students completed tests that are similar to those conducted in the Australian states and territories and overseas to monitor student performance. The tests focussed on reading skills (which correlate highly with other aspects of literacy) and numeracy. The analyses reported include: comparisons of the percentage of students correctly answering common items; the mean levels of achievement and percentage of students attaining mastery at different times; and comparisons over time of achievement and in some instances mastery, by gender, ethnicity, and social background. In addition, the report discusses the results obtained from multilevel multivariate analyses of both school-level and individual-level factors.