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The Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) program studies the progress of several groups of young Australians as they move from school into post-secondary education and work. This technical report is the codebook for wave one0 of the Y95 cohort. The Y95 cohort of LSAY was drawn from the national sample of approximately 13,000 year nine students. It was constructed by randomly selecting two year nine classes from a national sample of 300 schools designed to represent state and sector. The report describes the contents of the dataset and provides an explanation of all the variables in that dataset. Show less

The workshop brought together representatives from university associations, universities and governments to support, pursue and work towards the achievement of the priorities outlined by [Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation] APEC Economic Leaders. The workshop focused on four key themes within cross-border education cooperation - student mobility, researcher mobility, provider mobility and virtual mobility. For each theme, presenters used their expertise in the subject matter to raise key challenges, highlight examples of good practice and consider opportunities for university associations to work together. A panel discussion on each theme enabled a broad range of experiences and perspectives to be shared. For each theme workshop delegates focused on the identification of barriers to cross-border education cooperation, good practice in cross-border education cooperation and opportunities for collaboration in cross-border education cooperation.

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Workplace literacy is a new and highly contested site of activity. The field has evolved so rapidly in response to social, economic and political imperatives, that the term workplace literacy, and its various meanings, have largely gone unchallenged. This paper argues that, as a new and fast-growing field, workplace literacy is being under-researched and under-theorised, examining the nature and effects of current common understandings or formulations of the relationship between work and literacy, particularly as these relate to workers in the Australian workforce. The author then evaluates what workplace literacy programs have typically been designed to do, before discussing possible ways for future workplace literacy programs to be conducted that allow real opportunities for all workplace participants to be actively involved in the process of workplace reform. Show less

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) report (OECD 2001) [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 64.241] highlighted two separate but related issues for adult literacy policy in an era of rapid global and technological change: the needs of people who are at risk of becoming increasingly marginalised as the result of low literacy skills, and the need to create 'literacy-rich environments' that will facilitate the development of literacy skills at work and in the community in an integrated way. 2001 marked the tenth anniversary of the Australian Language and Literacy Policy (ALLP) (Dawkins 1991) [available in VOCEDplus at TD/ERD 87.64], a policy developed at the behest of the Labor Government of the day. The main thrust of the ALLP was about literacy as a tool in micro-economic re-structuring and macro-economic policy, and the policy had a pivotal role in placing language and literacy policy at the centre of Australia's education, employment and training profile (Brock, 2001:73).

There is now a clear and overdue need for a new socio-economically responsive national policy framework for adult literacy and numeracy in Australia. In this paper, the authors argue that Australia needs to take up anew the challenge of planning for the ongoing education of the adult population in the longer term and to form new policy around contemporary literacy needs. Further, it is argued that Australian governments need to adopt an inclusive, collaborative, evidence-based approach to literacy policies that takes account of the impacts of global, and especially, technological change. Other OECD nations are taking up that challenge and it is time that Australia, until recently at the forefront in progressive adult literacy policy, should be doing the same.

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This study, which is based on annual data collected on education, training, and labour market activities up until 2004 from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) program, examines the factors that influence course completion by young people at university and documents the post-university activities, especially labour market activities, of those who enrol at a university but do not obtain a qualification. Key findings indicated that: students’ regional and socioeconomic background has little influence on their likelihood of completing university; and university non-completion has not had substantial negative effects on the transition to the labour market compared to other groups of young people with the exception of university course completers. The contents are: Executive summary; Introduction; Data and methods; Completion of university degree courses; Labour market outcomes of university degree completers and non-completers; Discussion. Show less

This report aims to develop a school-based typology that captures some of the variation in vocational education and training (VET) provision across Australian schools. The authors construct models of VET provision using information on system-level policies, obtained from state and territory curriculum authorities, and information on school-level delivery derived from a national survey of schools and students. Data derived from the schools and students involved in the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) 1998 Cohort contribute to the construction of the typology. The report also examines the impact of these models of VET provision on school completion rates and on initial post-school outcomes for different groups of students. Schools are grouped into seven types within three broad models: (1) school model with workplace learning: VET studies are integrated with the senior curriculum and accredited towards the school certificate: (a) all programs incorporate workplace learning (12 per cent of all schools); (b) strong emphasis on workplace learning (26 per cent of all schools); and (c) weak emphasis on workplace learning (19 per cent of all schools); (2) TAFE model with workplace learning: most VET studies are stand-alone and not accredited towards the senior school certificate: (a) strong emphasis on workplace learning (13 per cent of all schools); (b) weak emphasis on workplace learning (13 per cent of all schools); and (3) VET without workplace learning or no VET: (a) VET does not include any workplace learning (10 per cent of all schools); and (b) no VET is offered (eight per cent of all schools). It is concluded that at a general level, the results suggest that although schools adopting the integrated models of VET tended to promote higher retention in school for VET participants, the schools providing stand-alone VET programs tended to promote better initial post-school outcomes - better in terms of avoiding unemployment and successfully entering pathways involving tertiary study, apprenticeships and entry to full-time work. In this sense, the ‘TAFE model’ of VET provision in schools seemed to promote positive post-school outcomes while the ‘school model’ seemed to promote better completion rates for participants. Show less

This chapter examines the evolution of workplace literacy as part of the wider adult literacy and adult education policy context in Australia. It undertakes to provide a discourse analysis of the workplace, as a key focus and locus of literacy policy and practice. It discusses how knowledge about the workplace has been constructed, and the consequence of this construction within the context of the 1991 government report 'Words at work: literacy needs in the workplace'. A critical examination of the report's construction and legitimisation of certain 'truths' is given from a post-structuralist perspective, and the conclusion reached that the report's underlying discourse needs to be challenged.

The volume of collected works is indexed at TD/TNC 75.295. Selected chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 75.296 to TD/TNC 75.299. Show less

The mission of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) is to create and disseminate knowledge and tools that can be used to improve learning. This volume offers highlights of ACER's educational research program during 1999-2000. Of particular interest to the vocational education and training (VET) sector, a project entitled 'Year 12 completion and post-school training on the rise' is briefly reviewed. Show less

This is a study of the transition to tertiary education of young people in Victoria. The aims of the study are: to describe the social and educational characteristics of those students who commence tertiary studies compared with those who do not; to develop a casual model of the transitions from school to tertiary study; and to describe the manfest reasons students give for not accepting the opportunity for tertiary study. Show less

This report examines the labour market dynamics between 1996 and 2000 of a cohort of young Australians born in 1975. During this period, most of the cohort were either in postsecondary education and training, or establishing themselves in the labour market. The first chapter reports on their major activity (full time study, full time work, part time work, looking for work and ‘other’ activities) for each year between 1996 and 2000 (when they were 21 to 25 years of age) and also presents the cohort’s participation in education and training and their occupational profiles. The second chapter examines the year-to-year movement between activities and occupational group. The remaining chapters look at full time work, unemployment and marginal activities (unemployment, part time work and other activities excluding domestic responsibilities), respectively. These three chapters provide a breakdown of the proportions of time the cohort spent in each activity. Subsequently, the relationship between time spent in the activity and a range of social background and educational labour market variables is examined. The third section examines the influences of qualifications and labour market experiences on the proportion of time spent in these activities. The report demonstrates the benefits of gaining full time employment early in the school-to-work transition. Experience of working full time has substantially stronger positive effects on the labour market outcomes of 21 to 25 year olds than completion of Year 12 or postsecondary qualifications and training. In terms of policy, the analyses indicate that governments should emphasise securing full time employment and the avoidance of unemployment for those young people who may be at risk of spending much of their time in marginal activities. The report also demonstrates that there is not a large homogenous group of young people excluded from full time work. There is considerable movement across activity states although full time is the most stable. The proportion of young adults who are engaged in marginal activities for long periods is relatively small being less than 10 per cent of the cohort. Show less