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This study, which looks at whether completing school really benefits all young people, provides estimates of the benefits to additional years of schooling for young people who are assessed as non-academically inclined. It uses data from the 1995 Year 9 cohort of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) to estimate the effects of additional years of schooling on earnings and on the probability of being in employment. While evidence that further years of schooling is actually detrimental to some young people, as the literal interpretation of many of the results suggests, is less clear, it nonetheless should not be ignored by policy makers and alternatives such as reasonable job openings, traineeships and apprenticeships should not be ignored for the sake of accumulating years of schooling. The report concludes that alternative pathways and institutional arrangements need to be available to meet the varying needs, abilities and preferences of all young people, as well as the information they require to make informed decisions on what is optimal for them.