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The purpose of the Review of Years 9 to 12 in Tasmania was to 'identify opportunities to improve attendance, retention and attainment outcomes' (Contract between ACER and the Tasmanian Department of Education, 2016). The Tasmanian Government is currently implementing significant reforms to improve students' retention and attainment in Tasmania's schools. There is a concern in the Tasmanian community however, that their students' performances are among the lowest in the nation. Reasons nominated for these results include weak literacy and numeracy levels; low attendance rates; high anxiety around transitions between Year 10 and Year 11 by some students, especially among those living outside of the larger cities; students seeking alternative education options; and family, financial, health and carer based issues. It is against this backdrop that the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) was commissioned to undertake an independent review of Years 9 to 12 concerning the following issues: student and workforce data; curriculum policy and provision (including vocational education and training (VET); and design and delivery for Years 9 to 12 (which includes the three Tasmanian education sectors: the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office (TCEO), Independent Schools Tasmania (IST) and the Department of Education (DoE)).

This Report provides the following: an analysis of current student performance and aspirational data, workforce characteristics, and curriculum provision and design in Years 9 to 12; a report on VET and vocational education and learning (VEL) in Tasmania's government and non-government schools; and specific recommendations regarding: participation and transition policies and procedures that align with the findings of the report and the Education Bill, future curriculum provision and design for Years 9 to 12, future workforce characteristics, and VET and VEL in Tasmania's government and non-government schools.

Excerpt from publication.

Follow-up stakeholder workshops were held in 2018 to discuss a way forward to implement the recommendations in this report. The 'Years 9 to 12 Review Workshops, 19-20 February 2018: report' is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 133.949. 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 focuses on the labour force experiences of secondary school students in Australia, highlights that: students who undertake short work experience programs benefit in terms of learning skills appropriate to a particular job; work placement programs encourage some students to complete their schooling; part-time jobs are perceived as being useful for developing general employment skills; part-time jobs of less than 10 hours a week do not affect academic performance of Years 11 and 12 students; and students with part-time jobs are less likely to be unemployed at age 19 than those who did not work part-time while at secondary school. Show less

Cohort reports were introduced as part of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) program in 2000 to provide an overview of the education, training and labour market experiences of the whole cohort on a regular basis. They 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 provides details of the Y03 cohort in 2004 in terms of their background characteristics, education and training, employment, social activities and attitudes. Information on this cohort was first collected in 2003 when these young people participated in OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Y03 cohort reports are indexed from TD/TNC 91.559 to TD/TNC 91.561. 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

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

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 paper examines the role of interest in learning and career development. It is based on the view that one's interest is a major factor in educational achievement. Moreover, interest continues to play a substantial role in career throughout the life span. Interest is related to work adjustment and is a key feature of job satisfaction for many individuals. Most people would be prepared to acknowledge that interest is important for learning and working, yet they may not have a clear understanding of the extent of that influence or the extent to which it is able to be expressed. There is enough evidence to suggest that course offerings in secondary schools are widespread (well over 300 courses) but not focused. An important issue is to what extent courses should reflect the world of work - there is an argument that education should be quarantined from this function. Ultimately it is a policy question about the nature and purpose of education. Show less

This study examines non-completion of Year 12 at school for a nationally representative sample of young people who were 15 years old and still attending school in 2003. The study explores relationships between non-completion and selected socio-demographic and school-related factors, and changes in rates of school non-completion from the early 1980s to 2005. There is a particular emphasis on how socio-demographic and school-related factors over that period have influenced early school leaving. This study also examines the use of an alternative measure of 'school completion', which incorporates participation in a vocational education and training (VET) program after leaving school. Show less

'Improving the Foundations for Lifelong Learning in Secondary Schools' is an Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) project that addresses the question of what secondary schools can do to help their students develop lifelong learning skills and attitudes. This report is one of two publications resulting from the project. The aim of this report is to show how the issues outlined in the first paper (indexed at TD/TNC 66.81) can be put into practice in Australian secondary schools. The report considers: what it means to be, or become, a lifelong learner at secondary school and how secondary schools can be assisted to orient themselves towards lifelong learning. The contents are: Executive summary; Introduction; What makes a lifelong learning school different?; What militates against a school becoming oriented to lifelong learning?; How do you start the 'lifelong learning' process in a school?; Another approach: the views of students returning to study; Conclusions; How far is the school on the journey to lifelong learning?; Methodology. The following case studies are also included: Birdwood High School; Caroline Chisholm Catholic College; Tallangatta Secondary College; St. Aloysius College; Marden Senior College. Included as appendices are: The Journey to Becoming a Lifelong Learning School; Questionnaire; Interview Schedule: Principal; Interview Schedule: Teachers. Show less

The participation by students in extra-curricular activities can be important in their overall engagement in schools and may be related to positive educational outcomes. This report, based on a study of students who were in Year 10 in 1999 and using data from the 1998 cohort of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) project, examines individual and school effects on engagement. The following key questions were examined: the influence of socioeconomic background on students' engagement levels; the influence of background factors such as gender on students' engagement levels; the extent to which student engagement is attributed to the differences between schools; and the factors that affect a student's engagement with school. Some of the findings that emerged from this study were: between-school differences account for almost nine per cent of the variation in students' engagement levels; gender, parents' educational level, student perceptions of school climate, self-concept of ability and intrinsic motivation were all found to have an effect on individual engagement, over and above the influence of whole-school engagement; and the overall level of student engagement in the school was a strong predictor of student-level engagement. The report is presented in five chapters: chapter one provides the introduction; chapter two examines the variables and methodology; chapter three looks at the student and school factors and their relationship with engagement; chapter four investigates the individual and school-level effects of student engagement; and the final chapter discusses the results of the study and policy implications of the findings. References and appendices are included. Show less