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The school to work transition continues to be difficult for some Australian school leavers and youth unemployment remains high. This report examines the methods used by Australian school-leavers to find employment, with a particular focus on the social processes involved. The aim is to assess: (1) the relationship between schooling, social background and job finding strategies; (2) the relationship between the method used to find work and the quality of work obtained; (3) the relative importance of informal methods of job seeking behaviour in helping different groups of young people fo find employment; and (4) the role of social network capital in determining job search strategies and outcomes. The analysis is based on data collected from a sample of young people first surveyed as Year 9 students in 1995 as part of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY). At the time of the 2000 collection, most of these students had left school and were either in further study or in the labour market. The focus is on early labour market entrants, i.e. those school leavers who went straight from secondary school into the labour force, either into a job or in search of one, rather than on to further study. The most common job-search methods used were: checking for employment advertisements in newspapers; contacting the employer directly; asking friends or relatives; and registering with the Commonwealth Employment Agency (CES/Centrelink). Most employment was obtained through informal methods. There were few differences in job seeking behaviour but patterns emerged in relation to obtaining employment. Males were significantly more likely to obtain employment through friends and relatives while females were far more likely to obtain work through responding to advertisements or through the CES/Centrelink. Overall, informal methods appear to provide young school leavers, particularly males, with employment opportunities more readily and with good wages. However, young people surveyed did not perceive these jobs to provide the career path, training and promotional opportunities required for ongoing career development and accumulation of human capital. 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 series of documents provides supporting information for the LSAY dataset of the 1995 cohort (Y95) at wave 1 (1995). It includes a questionnaire and codebook. This report, published by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), is part of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) research program.

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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 summarises 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.

The full report is indexed at TD/TNC 93.855. 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 data for this briefing paper are from the 1995 cohort of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY). The findings reported here are from three recent LSAY research reports, which are listed at the end of this briefing paper. The cohort comprises young people who were in Year 9 at school in 1995. Data in this briefing paper have been collected annually to 2005. This briefing paper concentrates on those who undertook an apprenticeship or traineeship after leaving school, or enrolled for non-apprenticeship study at a TAFE institution or a private VET provider. Show less

The Australian Youth Survey (AYS) was set up to provide policy-relevant information on young people's education and training pathways and their access to, and success in, the labour market. This technical report provides a brief description of the AYS, including information about the key research questions, the main data fields, sampling and the raw data bases. 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. The 2003 cohort of LSAY was drawn from the sample of 15 year-olds in Australian schools who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2003.

Part A of this technical report, 'Data dictionary', describes the contents of the dataset and provides an explanation of all the variables in that dataset.

Part B, 'Frequencies', provides the counts of the values within each variable for wave two of the 2003 (Y03) cohort.

Part C, 'Questionnaire', is the questionnaire for wave two of the 2003 (Y03) cohort. 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 2005 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

The subjects that students choose to study for their Year 12 certificate have a major impact on the educational and career options open to them after finishing school. Some subjects or combinations of subjects are traditionally more likely to act as gateways to higher education or to vocational education and training (VET), while others are more likely to lead to the workforce or to unemployment. This study looks at the following research questions: (1) What are the typical clusters of subjects or course types studied by Year 12 students and have these changed since prior analyses as a result of the increased participation in VET subjects and with the apparent broadening of subject choices across the Key Learning Areas? (2) What are the profiles of students enrolled in particular course types in Year 12 and are there particular courses that are more likely to be studied by males or females, or those from different social backgrounds? (3) What field of study area or work do students from particular course types tend to move in? (4) What area of work do students from particular course types tend to move into and are there particular course types that appear to lead more often to unemployment or other poor outcomes? Findings indicate that: the course areas of business studies, sciences other than advanced mathematics-physical sciences, and technical vocational courses provide some alternative pathways for a broad range of students, both in terms of ability and social status, language background and gender; the course that provided the poorest pathway to further education and training of any type were the service-clerical vocational, mixed eclectic and visual and performing arts courses; and most students who left school immediately after completing Year 12 moved into low-level positions, mainly in the areas of retail trades, accommodation, hospitality and manufacturing. The contents are: Executive summary; Introduction; Deriving the courses of study; Profiles of participation in Year 12 courses; Participation in further education and training; Moving into the workforce; Discussion. Included as appendices are: Sample and measures; Subject groupings; Notes on methods of analysis; Estimation of the impact of various factors on participation in Year 12 subjects; Interpreting odds ratios; Participation in higher education broad fields of study. 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 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