Search Results

A popular view is that tradespersons' earnings compare favourably with those with university education. This view is not borne out by wage data, but a common rejoinder is that it is the self-employed tradespersons who make the 'big' money (and probably under-report their income). These ideas are examined by analysing household expenditure data in conjunction with income data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Household Expenditure Survey and the Survey of Income and Housing. The data also allow us to look at wealth across occupations. [The authors'] findings are that neither expenditure data nor wealth data change significantly the relativities between the trades and occupations more associated with higher education. While no doubt there are some very rich tradespersons, on average those with university degrees earn more than those with trade qualifications. And there is little evidence to suggest than on average self-employed tradespeople 'do better' than those who are employees.

Published abstract. Show less

Improved educational outcomes are seen as a key lever for addressing the disadvantage faced by Indigenous Australians. Poor educational outcomes have been observed at all levels of education, from early childhood through to tertiary education. While the increase in school retention rates of Indigenous Australians in recent years is encouraging the more critical issues are whether there have been improvements in educational performance at earlier years for Indigenous students and the extent to which educational performance at say, Year 10, is flowing through to education outcomes such as Year 12 completion.

The data used in this project come from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth (LSAY), including both the 2006 and 2009 student cohorts. The first wave of each LSAY is the [Programme for International Student Assessment] PISA survey. One of the advantages of PISA scores is that they allow overtime direct comparisons and between-cohort comparisons. The subsequent waves of LSAY allow [the authors] to follow the students throughout their compulsory education and beyond. The latest wave of LSAY was released in 2013 for the 2012 wave of both cohorts. The 2009 cohort has (mostly) left school in the last LSAY observation window. This makes it the first year when a full comparison between the 2006 and 2009 cohorts can happen. The data allow [the authors] to conduct a full set of comparisons between Indigenous students and non-Indigenous students in the two cohorts up to their choice of tertiary education.

Excerpts from publication. Show less

This overview paper is based on research undertaken by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) 2012-2014 for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade under the research project Research into the Financing of [technical and vocational education and training] TVET in the Pacific and on the various reports produced by ACER over the course of that research. In this paper, [it is] discussed what a regional framework for TVET finance might look like. The contents of the paper are: (1) Introduction; (2) What is TVET?; (3) What kind of TVET finance data need collecting?; (4) TVET finance data currently collected; (5) Implementation. The Appendix contains data compiled by ACER on Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Fiji and Kiribati.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

[This article looks] at the changes to the 'quality' of jobs obtained by persons with particular qualifications over the period 1996 to 2011, where quality is based on an index which ranks 400 or so occupations by the level of qualifications in the occupation, average income of those who are full-time employed or occupational status. The occupational structure has changed in a way to favour the 'better jobs', but this has been swamped by the expansion in educational qualifications with the result that the average quality of the job obtained by a person with a particular qualification is lower in 2011 than in 1996. The census data allow a detailed characterisation of qualifications with four levels - higher degrees, degrees, diplomas and certificates III/IV - and nine fields of study. The groups most affected by the decline in the quality of jobs obtained are those with a higher degree (particularly business and administration) and diploma (particularly education and health).

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

One of the most important social and economic trends over the last 50 years (or longer) has been the increase in education levels in the workforce. This has been underpinned by public policy settings which see expenditure on education and training as an investment in human capital, with a return to both individuals and the economy. The positive pay-off from education remains the linchpin of this policy direction, and in general the evidence is pretty solid. The purpose of this paper is to explore further one particular aspect of the pay-off from education - the type of job an individual with a particular level of education is likely to get. The general idea has been presented earlier (Karmel 2011). The authors use occupations as a device to rank jobs and then compare the distributions of jobs across time for individuals with particular education levels. In the earlier paper, for example, it was found that between 1996 and 2006, individuals with a diploma became considerably less likely to have a job in the top two deciles of skilled jobs (based on an index which ranked occupations depending on their qualification profile). The extension in this paper is four-fold. First, the data are updated to 2011, taking advantage of the Census of that year. Second, the analysis considers two alternative indexes, with occupations ranked on the basis of income and also by socioeconomic status, as well the qualifications profile. Third, changes in the occupational structure of the labour market are isolated, by using the 1996 distribution of jobs as the benchmark. Finally, the analysis is undertaken at a broad field of education level, to emphasise the point that averages mask considerable variation in people's experiences.

The paper: considers three indexes that can be used to rank occupations; shows how educational qualifications have increased and how the occupational distribution of jobs changed between 1996 and 2011; presents an analysis of the occupational distributions, focusing first on the relationship between educational qualification and occupational distributions in 1996 and then the changes between 1996 and 2011, and then repeats the analysis by field of education; and ends with a short discussion.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

This annex accompanies an overview paper based on research undertaken by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) during 2012-2014 for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade under the project 'Research into the financing of [technical and vocational education and training] TVET in the Pacific'. The annex is comprised of: the scope of the framework; TVET qualifications providers; and conceptual framework. Appendix one of the paper is a list of TVET providers identified as being in scope of research on financing TVET in the Pacific for Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Kiribati.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less