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In 2000, ACER introduced cohort reports as part of its Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) program to 'provide an overview of the education, training and labour market experiences of the whole cohort on a regular basis, contributing to discussions of issues that affect young people'. Cohort reports supplement data already available from government statistics on enrolments and apparent retention rates. These reports are aimed at helping researchers to see the potential of the database as they use a wider range of the variables than may be used in the LSAY research reports.

This report contains information about the experiences of the 1995 LSAY cohort in 1999. Information on this cohort was first collected in 1995, when these young people were Year 9 students in Australian schools. The modal age of respondents at the time of the 2002 survey was 18 years and almost all of the cohort had left secondary school and had commenced further education, employment or some combination of activities. Key features of the background characteristics of the cohort are: two per cent were of Indigenous background; 89% came from a home in which English was the main language spoken; 68% had attended a government school in Year 9, 20% had attended a Catholic school and 12% had attended an Independent school; 55% had a home address in a metropolitan area in 1995, 24% lived in regional centres, and 21% had a home address in a rural or remote area; and 49% had a father who worked in a professional, para-professional or managerial occupation, and 16% had a father who worked as a plant or machine operator, or a labourer. The contents are: Introduction; Who is in the Year 9 class of 1995?; Education and work activities; Living arrangements and other activities; Concluding remarks; References.

Other cohort reports relating to the Year 9 class of 1995 are indexed at TD/TNC 78.211, TD/TNC 78.213 and TD/TNC 78.214. Show less

Education and training policy is increasingly being framed from a lifelong learning perspective both internationally and in Australia. The need for continual learning over the lifespan is now commonly recognised as a key organising concept in education and training programs. This paper focuses on some of the key policy issues for furthering the goals of lifelong learning in Australia. Five main questions are addressed: (a) what is lifelong learning?; (b) what are the key elements of the policy agenda?; (c) what are the highest priorities?; (d) how much will lifelong learning cost?; and (e) how can investment in lifelong learning be stimulated?

Other selected papers from the seminar are indexed at TD/TNC 69.524 and TD/TNC 69.525. Show less

This literature review is part of a project commissioned by The Smith Family that is investigating the effects and influences of family expectations on the cost benefit analyses undertaken by students when they are considering their post-school plans. The review has been structured to survey the following areas of research: the influence of family, friends and networks - which explores the way in which family processes and relationships impact on young people as they make the transition from school to work; family contexts - research which links family structural factors and characteristics such as socioeconomic status with post-school planning; and adolescent decision making - the influences identified in the previous sections are considered in the broader context of theoretical and empirical research describing the underlying processes of career development. Wherever possible, the review emphasises Australian research studies.

Excerpts from publication reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. 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 one1 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

LSAY briefing, produced by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), is a series which aims to provide summaries of findings from ACER research and to identify some of the implications for policy and further research. It is based on data from ACER's Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) project and key LSAY reports. This issue, which examines the main pathways by which Australian youth move from school to work, highlights that: the school-to-work pathways in Australia are highly diverse and individualised; by the mid-1990s, 43% of Year 10 students from the late 1980s had obtained either a university degree or a TAFE diploma or were studying for one of these qualifications; tertiary qualifications had considerable influence in maintaining full-time employment; the majority of school leavers without tertiary qualifications spend most of their first seven post-school years in full-time work; about 16% of male Year 10 students and 20% of female students had problematic pathways; young people whose main after school activity in the first year was either an apprenticeship, full-time employment or full-time study were more likely to experience successful pathways.

This brief is based on a paper presented at the Australian Centre conference in Potsdam, Germany in May 2000, which was organised by the Monash University-ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET). The paper, which was published as CEET working paper no. 31, is indexed at TD/TNC 62.35. 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 eight of the Y98 cohort. The Y98 cohort of LSAY was drawn from the national sample of approximately 14,000 year nine students. It was constructed by randomly selecting two year nine classes from a sample of 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 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

This is the final report of the Science and Maths Postgraduate Project conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). The purpose of the project was to build knowledge and understanding of issues related to the supply, demand and employment outcomes for people with higher degree research (HDR) qualifications in science and mathematics. A number of key findings are highlighted: Australia has a growing supply of people with HDR science and mathematics qualifications, however, the rise in Australian university completions in the science and mathematics fields is below that in non-scientific disciplines; universities are finding it increasingly hard to attract high quality PhD candidates in the mathematics and science disciplines due to a strong graduate employment market, the lack of emphasis on higher degrees in industry (due to a perceived decline in emphasis on research and development), very low stipends for PhD candidates and declining numbers of students in school and at the undergraduate level studying in most of these fields; in comparison with other countries, Australian growth and per capita completion numbers in HDR qualifications in science and mathematics appear strong; employment demand for people with HDR qualifications in science and mathematics is difficult to monitor and quantify using available data; and consultations and case studies suggest that within private industry in Australia the perceived need for HDR qualifications in the science and mathematics fields is very low. Show less

The Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) track young people as they move through education and into the labour force. This study aimed to assess the viability of using the LSAY study data for national reporting of outcomes by geographic location and to investigate, using LSAY data, the variations in education participation and outcomes by geographical location. The distributions of the 1995 and 1998 LSAY Year 9 cohort samples by geographic location category are identified and examined with particular consideration being given to the sampling of remote areas. Due to the sample distribution problems encountered, the use of LSAY data for national reporting of outcomes by geographical location is not recommended. The remainder of the report examines the association between geographic location and various educational outcomes, i.e. the literacy and numeracy tests administered to the sample in Year 9, early school leaving, Year 12 completion and participation in postsecondary education. The general finding of these analyses is that regional effects on the outcomes considered are generally weak in comparison to those of other background characteristics considered. In addition, regional differences can often be explained by the different characteristics of regional populations. 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