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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 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

In 2002, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) commissioned the Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision (SCRCSP) to produce a regular report to COAG against key indicators of Indigenous disadvantage, with the key task of identifying indicators that are of relevance to all governments and Indigenous stakeholders and that can demonstrate the impact of program and policy interventions. Reports were published in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011. In 2012, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) was commissioned to conduct a review of these reports. The review aimed to identify: how the reports were used; the usefulness of the reports to users; how the reports compare with other equivalent publications; the extent to which the reports are meeting the objectives set by COAG; and the changes that could improve the usefulness of the reports. This review revealed a range of different views. While most stakeholders recognised that the reports were meeting their purpose of reporting on government progress in relation to the COAG 'Closing the gap' targets and indicators, there were differences of opinions on how effectively this was being done and on the usefulness and relevance of the reports amid a larger array of government performance reports. The uniqueness of the reports was seen to lie mainly in its focus on outcomes and whole-of-government perspective. The report is presented in two sections: the first section contains the terms of reference, methodology, key findings and recommendations; and the second section contains the list of people and organisations who contributed to the review and the information gathered through the surveys, phone conversations and face-to-face discussions. Show less

This technical report is the questionnaires for 1975, 1978 to 1994 for the 1961 cohort of the youth in transition survey. 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 one2 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 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an initiative of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It was implemented for the OECD by an international consortium led by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). ACER also conducted the PISA survey within Australia. PISA is a new survey of the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds mainly in industrialised countries. The survey seeks to determine: how well students are prepared for future challenges; which skills they have to help them to adapt to change in their lives, e.g. the ability to analyse, reason and communicate their arguments and ideas to others; whether some ways of organising schools and learning within them are more effective than others; if the quality of school resources has an influence on students' learning; and the extent to which student performance is dependent on their home backgrounds and ways to improve learning opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. PISA assesses the learning domains of reading, mathematical and scientific literacy along with some other areas such as students' familiarity with computers, their learning strategies, and their attitudes towards their schools. The first of a planned three-yearly cycle of assessments was undertaken in 32 countries (28 OECD member countries and four non-member countries that chose to participate) during the year 2000 in randomly selected samples of schools and students. This pamphlet summarises the Australian national report, providing results of student performance and insights into factors that influence the development of their reading, mathematical and scientific skills at home and at school, and discussing the implications of the results for policy development.

The full Australian report is indexed at TD/TNC 69.532 and the international report is indexed at TD/TNC 67.328. Show less

This publication is a response to the desire for an informative resource of Australian and international online education gateways and portals. The report provides an outline of a range of current educational gateways. The challenges associated with providing a current overview of online resources are recognised. The process involves consideration of issues faced by gateway developers, and exploration of gateways from a variety of perspectives. An annotated bibliography is provided to summarise the various gateways discussed in the publication, as well as an annotated summary of international Ministry of Education websites. The analysis undertaken in this publication identifies current trends in online education gateways, and recognises the valuable role and advantages of gateways as tools in the knowledge society. Show less

This set of case studies presents a range of ideas and examples of best practices from sixteen school industry programs for senior secondary students from around Australia. The first section discusses the context in which the Enterprise & Career Education Foundation (ECEF) was established in 1994 and examines factors such as school industry programs, policy reform and observations from the US. This section also outlines the methodology for conducting and reporting the case studies. The next section outlines the key themes of school industry programs including an integrated approach to structured workplacement, servicing levels to schools and business groups, program management skills, and access and equity issues. The case studies are: 'Dulwich High School', which describes a vocational pathways program for at risk students in an inner urban government secondary school; 'Sandringham Secondary College', which looks at the provision of a range of vocational courses in a large government secondary college in Victoria; 'Box Hill Senior Secondary College', which details three initiatives - a business partnership in the hospitality industry, the development of a sport and recreation program, and a Victorian Certificate of Education general technology program for students at risk of leaving school early; 'Hellyer College', which examines how the introduction of vocational programs at this college in Tasmania has supported the skill needs of the community and increased school retention rates for students; 'The Don College', which examines how a program in this Tasmanian school has increased student retention and community involvement; 'Mungindi', which illustrates how the difficulties of vocational education provision in rural and remote areas can be overcome; 'Iona Presentation College', which demonstrates how the college acts as the centre of activity for the provision of workplace learning for 10 other non-government schools; 'Trinity College', which provides ideas about the integration of curriculum and organisation of vocational subjects into traditional or conservative educational settings; 'St. Joseph's College', which shows how the development of vocational education programs extended the school's role to that of comprehensive training provider and group trainer; 'The Mackay Region School-Industry Links Scheme Incorporated', which demonstrates a successful program encompassing nine schools and over 1700 industry placements each year; ''Gladstone', which examines the development of a part-time school-based apprenticeship; 'Nambucca Valley', which looks at a program operating in a low socioeconomic area with at risk students in the Northern New South Wales (NSW) area; 'Kwinana Industries Council and its Excellence in Education Compact', which highlights an industry-led consortium providing structured work-based learning as one of a range of educational and training activities; 'Narrogin Agricultural College', which outlines the work of this Western Australian school in running vocationally focused programs to meet the skill needs of the primary industry sector; 'The Engineering Pathways Program of South Australia', which describes a state-wide program with the support of state government and training agencies; and 'Bendigo EDGE', which represents a model regional partnership where students combine participation as employees in a traineeship and as school students undertaking a Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE).

Copyright Commonwealth of Australia reproduced by permission. Show less

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an initiative of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It was implemented for the OECD by an international consortium led by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). ACER also conducted the PISA survey within Australia. PISA is a new survey of the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds mainly in industrialised countries. The survey seeks to determine: how well students are prepared for future challenges; which skills they have to help them to adapt to change in their lives, e.g. the ability to analyse, reason and communicate their arguments and ideas to others; whether some ways of organising schools and learning within them are more effective than others; if the quality of school resources has an influence on students' learning; and the extent to which student performance is dependent on their home backgrounds and ways to improve learning opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. PISA assesses the learning domains of reading, mathematical and scientific literacy along with some other areas such as students' familiarity with computers, their learning strategies, and their attitudes towards their schools. The first of a planned three-yearly cycle of assessments was undertaken in 32 countries (28 OECD member countries and four non-member countries that chose to participate) during the year 2000 in randomly selected samples of schools and students. This Australian national report describes PISA and how it developed, the details of Australia's participation, and the Australian results in both the national and international context. It presents insights into the factors affecting the development of students' reading, mathematical and scientific skills at home and at school and discusses the implications of the results for future policy development. Key information from the international report is incorporated in this report to provide Australian readers with a broad perspective of PISA.

The summary of the full Australian report is indexed at TD/TNC 69.533 and the international report is indexed at TD/TNC 67.328. Show less