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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

At a time in which there is increasing focus on the productivity, equity and standards of higher education, it is vital for universities to have access to data that focus on how students are learning and the outcomes being achieved. The Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) provides the higher education sector with such data. The AUSSE reflects a collaboration between the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and participating institutions. In the 2009 AUSSE, 35 institutions took part, around three quarters of the universities in Australia and New Zealand. This report provides measures of student engagement, information about individuals' intrinsic involvement with their learning, and the extent to which they are making use of available educational opportunities. Such information enhances knowledge about learning processes, can be a reliable proxy for understanding students' learning outcomes and provides excellent diagnostic measures for learning enhancement activities. Show less

The theme of this conference is the skills and dispositions that young people need to participate effectively in work and society and the role of educators to nurture the development of those skills and dispositions. The contents are as follows: Keynote papers: Specifying and assessing knowledge and skills for life / Geoff Masters; Participation in the classroom, productivity in the workforce - unfulfilled expectations / Stuart Macintyre; Round and round or fully rounded? How can we improve youth transitions / Richard Sweet; 'The ideas bag': distilling the essence of the ideas of the conference / Richard Sweet, Richard Slaughter and Julius Roe; Concurrent papers: Beyond 'the future of ...': responding to the civilisational challenge / Richard Slaughter; Quality education and quality work / Julius Roe; The National Assessment Program - Civics and Citizenship: reflections on practices in primary and secondary schools / Suzanne Mellor; Some reforms to better equip young people for tomorrow's world / Christopher Robinson; Young people and social inclusion: challenges for teachers / Terri Seddon; X, Y and Z: three decades of education, employment and social outcomes of Australian youth / Sheldon Rothman and Kylie Hillman; Indigenous education: imaging the future, the role of educators / Wayne Muir; The intersection of adolescents' interests and national needs: implications for educators / James A. Athanasou; Pathways to social and emotional wellbeing: lessons from a 24-year longitudinal study / Diana Smart; Assessing and reporting of employability skills of senior secondary students / Gabrielle Matters and David D. Curtis; An international perspective on civic and citizenship education: exploring the learning context for lower secondary students / Wolfram Schulz and Julian Fraillon; Assessing education and training requirements against uncertain labour force trends / Gerald Burke; Lunchtime conversations; Poster presentations; Conference program; Conference delegates. Show less

This paper reviews the main comparative research papers on the transition from secondary school level to work, primarily in Europe. The paper aims to identify the important dimensions of variation among education/training systems and their national contexts, which may be hypothesised to influence the success of transitions. It develops a conceptual framework to represent inter-country variations in the nature of the school to work transition process. There are four dimensions of a conceptual framework: the national context; the nature of the education and training system in each country and its connection to the labour market, as well as state policies influencing these processes; the structure of the school to work transition process itself, and the outcomes of the transition process - 'success' and 'failure' in transitions; and variations among the groups of young people in the outcomes achieved. Recommendations are made for additional information needed to test the hypotheses. Show less

The South Australian 'Early years of school' policy, changed the way that an identifiable subset of students progressed through junior primary school, affecting individuals born in specific months of the year, with those born in the remaining months and unaffected by the policy affording a natural comparison group. Analysis indicated that the major substantive change between the two groups was the increased education gained by the affected group. Further analysis revealed that it appeared that an additional year of junior primary school generates an increase in the probability of being employed full time within a year of leaving school by approximately 11 per cent, this only applying to those students who did not go on to full time post-school studies. It is suggested that the results of this study provide evidence that the process of schooling itself has an effect on labour market outcomes. It is also indicated that education reform may have complex outcomes, all of which need to be identified and analysed. Show less

This report explores the relationship between life satisfaction and participation in further education, training and employment and assesses whether the relationship between life satisfaction and post-school activities holds after prior levels of life satisfaction are taken into account and whether movement between activities in the post-school years is associated with changes in life satisfaction. It is based on new research that brings together two streams of investigation in the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) program: emotional well-being of young people; and transitions to further education, training and work. The overall finding of the study is that young Australians are highly satisfied with their life and careers. In particular, the study suggests that young people who were in full-time education, training, employment or a combination of these activities had higher levels of satisfaction than those who were occupied only part-time. Those who were in part-time education, training or employment were in turn more satisfied than those who were not in education, training or employment. Show less

This publication explores national and international policy priorities for building students' innovation capabilities through information and communication technologies (ICT) in Australian schools. Section one sets out the Australian policy context for digital education and highlights some of the emerging challenges. It provides an overview of two Australian school education policy priorities: that of how to meaningfully include technologies into teaching and learning; and how to build innovation capabilities in students. Section two critically examines the education and economic policy contexts for digital education in Australia, their intersections with international economic priorities, and the role of commercial technologies markets in schools. Section three discusses those Australian education policy priorities that focus on how students build both their discipline-based knowledge and general capabilities, such as creativity and innovation, using technologies. Section four provides some insights into how students currently use technologies for learning and communicating with each other inside and outside of school, and reflects upon what the implications of these practices are for students and policy implementation in schools. In section five the discussion focuses on the physical and human characteristics required by all stakeholders to enable learning with technologies in 21st century schools. Section six challenges existing policy approaches to technology-use in schools, and argues for more open approaches to the deployment and use of technologies and digital resources in schools. Show less

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a survey of the knowledge and skills of 15 year olds that was first carried out in 2000 and repeated every three years to measure the changes that take place over time. This document details the results of PISA 2003, focusing on Australia’s results and how the Australian students performed in comparison with students from other countries. It shows how well prepared Australian students are to meet the challenges of the future, whether they have the ability to analyse, reason and communicate their ideas effectively, and whether they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life. Overall, Australian students performed consistently well in the four assessment domains: mathematics, reading, scientific literacy and problem solving. Key messages for Australia from PISA 2003 include: in relation to socioeconomic background, students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds have a distinct advantage; in relation to Indigenous students, a very small proportion of students performed well in mathematical literacy; and in relation to gender differences, while there was no overall gender differences apparent in mathematical performance, males tended to be over-represented at the upper levels of achievement.

Highlights from this report are indexed at TD/TNC 81.175. Show less

Understanding student engagement is the key to enhancing higher and vocational education. The author explains how ACER research is helping providers improve learning processes and student outcomes. Show less

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 2001. 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 2001 survey was 20 years. Highlights from this report include: approximately one-half of the cohort were engaged in study during 2001; more females than males were studying at university or TAFE, while the proportion of males in apprenticeships was greater; more than 90% of those who had completed some study since leaving school stated that they had benefited from study; more than four-fifths of the cohort were employed in 2001; males employed full-time worked more hours per week and earned more money than females employed full-time, while males employed part-time earned more money than females employed part-time but worked the same number of hours per week; job satisfaction was very high among cohort members; and most members of the cohort were happy with their lives. The contents are: Executive summary; Introduction; Who is in the Year 9 class of 1995 in 2001?; Education and training activities; Employment; Social aspects; Concluding comments; References.

Other cohort reports relating to the Year 9 class of 1995 are indexed at TD/TNC 78.213, TD/TNC 78.214 and TD/TNC 78.217. Show less