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This article reports on the findings and implications of a report that investigated the educational and occupational plans of junior secondary students. The study, conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) for The Smith Family, surveyed more than 3000 financially disadvantaged students in Years 8 and 9 who are participating in The Smith Family's 'Learning for life program'. The study investigates the plans and aspirations of these young people and factors associated with these plans, and the accuracy of their understandings about pathways from education to work. The study revealed that these students were beginning to identify areas of work that they like and the pathways required, but that many did not properly understand these routes. It also indicated a mismatch between what these students would like to do and the availability of corresponding jobs in the labour market.

The full report, 'What do students think of work?: junior secondary school students' perceptions of the world of work', is indexed at TD/TNC 81.202. Show less

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

This report, which uses data from the 1995 cohort of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), focuses on the following two research questions: What are the characteristics of young people who commence a New Apprenticeship overall, as well as those in traditional apprenticeships or traineeships separately and those in different fields of training? What are the points of entry to and patterns of progress through New Apprenticeships? Some of the findings of this research are: participation in New Apprenticeships was higher among males than females, those of an English-speaking background than other students, those from non-metropolitan than metropolitan backgrounds, those whose fathers worked in a skilled trade than others, those with above average trade-related interests, and those in the lowest three quarters of family socioeconomic status compared to the highest quarter; males were three times as likely as females to participate in traditional apprenticeships; participation in traineeships was more evenly distributed across the cohort than was the case for traditional apprenticeships; most New Apprentices began in the same year they completed school or the year after; and by 2004, 74% of traditional apprentices had completed, 16% had discontinued and 10% were continuing their apprenticeships. Show less

This report looks at the relationship between students’ attitudes to school and intentions to participate in education and training, and how these attitudes and intentions influence participation in Year 12 and in further education and training. Students’ attitudes to school, educational intentions and attainments are examined within the context of earlier school achievement, social background, geographic location, language background and gender. Findings suggest that: 87 per cent of those who indicated that they planned to proceed to Year 12 did so; 79 per cent of those who indicated that they planned to leave school before Year 12 did leave school before Year 12; the correlation between intention to proceed to Year 12 and actual participation is very high (r = 0.80); 52 per cent of those who intended to enter university did participate in university; only 14 per cent of those who indicated that they did not intend to proceed to university eventually participated in university; the correlation between intention and entry to higher education is moderately strong (r = 0.59). The results indicate that intentions for continuing with education as expressed in junior secondary school are important indications of actually continuing in education. These intentions are influenced by a range of factors, including attitudes to school. The contents are: Executive summary; Introduction; Theory, models and data; Results from the model estimations; Conclusion. Included as appendices are: The attitudes to school scale; Analytic methodology; Data. Show less

This report examines the experiences of young people during their first year of tertiary education. The data used in this report are drawn from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) which study the progress of cohorts of young Australians as they make the transition from secondary school to work and/or further education and training, beginning in Year 9. The report focuses on the group of young people who were in Year 9 in 1998 and first entered tertiary education during 2002. It is based on three questions. (1) How satisfied are university and TAFE (non-apprenticeship) students with their initial experiences of tertiary education and what areas of their transitions have been difficult? (2) Who is the most likely to change course, or institution, or defer study or withdraw and what are their reasons for doing so? (3) Are the outcomes and experiences of the ‘equity target groups’, those students from backgrounds that have been underrepresented in higher education (i.e. students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, rural and isolated backgrounds, with an Indigenous background, or from non-English speaking backgrounds, female students in non-traditional fields of study, or students with disabilities), different from the experiences of other students? Overall, the study found that the majority of first year tertiary students reported predominantly positive experiences of tertiary study. Some students appeared to be having trouble maintaining a balance between work and education commitments. It is recommended that monitoring and further research are needed to clarify the effects of paid work on transition to tertiary education. The report also recommends monitoring of the experiences, difficulties and first year outcomes of some of the equity target groups, particularly students of an Indigenous Australian background, as the results suggest that although these students have accessed tertiary education, they may still face relatively high difficulties in maintaining their studies. Show less

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. Show less

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. The 2003 cohort of LSAY was drawn from the sample of 15 year-olds in Australian schools who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2003.

Part A of this technical report, 'Data dictionary', describes the contents of the dataset and provides an explanation of all the variables in that dataset.

Part B, 'Frequencies', provides the counts of the values within each variable for wave one of the 2003 (Y03) cohort.

Part C, 'Questionnaire', is the questionnaire for wave one of the 2003 (Y03) cohort. Show less

The focus of this report is on a group of young people who are not in full-time study, nor in the labour force. It is based on data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), which studies the progress of cohorts of young Australians in their transitions from secondary school to work and further education and training, beginning in Year 9. It investigates two groups of young people who had experienced some time outside the labour force and full-time education: (1) those who had not been involved in full-time education or the labour force for at least one month between January 1997 and December 2003; and (2) those who were not involved in education and training or the labour force at the time of the annual surveys from 1999 to 2003. The findings are presented under: Patterns of time outside the labour force and full-time education; Main activities of young people outside the labour force and full-time education; Entering or re-entering the labour force or full-time education. Findings indicate that: overall, 64% of the young people who participated in the LSAY interview in 1997 spent some time outside the labour force and full-time education over the years they were surveyed (up to the end of 2003); young people who had not achieved highly at secondary school, did not have a Year 12 Certificate, were female, or who had a health problem or disability were more likely to have reported extended periods of time outside the labour force and full-time education (longer than 12 months); young people who had been in the lowest school achievement quarter or who did not have a Year 12 Certificate were more likely to have experienced multiple periods of time outside the labour force and full-time education; most young women who were outside the labour force and full-time education at the time of each annual survey reported that they were caring for children or involved in home duties; young men who were not studying full-time or in the labour force were involved in some other form of study or training in the early years, but in the later years tended to be on holiday or travelling; for young women, being married increased the likelihood of return after the first period of time outside the labour force, while being a mother or having a disability or health problem decreased the likelihood of returning to the labour force or full-time education; for young men, the likelihood of return from the longest period outside the labour force and education was related solely to prior experience of time outside the labour force; and for young women, the likelihood of return from the longest period was associated with marital, parental and disability status. Show less

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. The 2003 cohort of LSAY was drawn from the sample of 15 year-olds in Australian schools who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2003.

Part A of this technical report, 'Data dictionary', describes the contents of the dataset and provides an explanation of all the variables in that dataset.

Part B, 'Frequencies', provides the counts of the values within each variable for wave two of the 2003 (Y03) cohort.

Part C, 'Questionnaire', is the questionnaire for wave two of the 2003 (Y03) cohort. Show less

The subjects that students choose to study for their Year 12 certificate have a major impact on the educational and career options open to them after finishing school. Some subjects or combinations of subjects are traditionally more likely to act as gateways to higher education or to vocational education and training (VET), while others are more likely to lead to the workforce or to unemployment. This study looks at the following research questions: (1) What are the typical clusters of subjects or course types studied by Year 12 students and have these changed since prior analyses as a result of the increased participation in VET subjects and with the apparent broadening of subject choices across the Key Learning Areas? (2) What are the profiles of students enrolled in particular course types in Year 12 and are there particular courses that are more likely to be studied by males or females, or those from different social backgrounds? (3) What field of study area or work do students from particular course types tend to move in? (4) What area of work do students from particular course types tend to move into and are there particular course types that appear to lead more often to unemployment or other poor outcomes? Findings indicate that: the course areas of business studies, sciences other than advanced mathematics-physical sciences, and technical vocational courses provide some alternative pathways for a broad range of students, both in terms of ability and social status, language background and gender; the course that provided the poorest pathway to further education and training of any type were the service-clerical vocational, mixed eclectic and visual and performing arts courses; and most students who left school immediately after completing Year 12 moved into low-level positions, mainly in the areas of retail trades, accommodation, hospitality and manufacturing. The contents are: Executive summary; Introduction; Deriving the courses of study; Profiles of participation in Year 12 courses; Participation in further education and training; Moving into the workforce; Discussion. Included as appendices are: Sample and measures; Subject groupings; Notes on methods of analysis; Estimation of the impact of various factors on participation in Year 12 subjects; Interpreting odds ratios; Participation in higher education broad fields of study. Show less