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In this nine minute interview, Steve Davis talks with Tom Karmel about the report 'Attrition in the trades' [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 104.36]. This report investigates attrition in the trades by comparing the rate at which tradespeople leave their occupation with that of professionals. It also determines whether attrition is influenced by economic conditions, and if a trade can provide a good start to a career in the professions. The report concludes that attrition in the trades is no higher than in the professions; the rate of leaving particular occupations may vary, but overall the results between the two are very similar. The economic climate also makes little difference to the attrition rate.

Published abstract. Show less

This report is the 15th edition of the annual series produced by the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA). The series provides point-in-time and trend information on the education and training outcomes of young people in Australia as they make the transition from school to further study and work. This edition also examines the nature of young people’s jobs and the broader social context for young people, including trends in independence, marriage, fertility, home ownership and life satisfaction.

Key findings include: teenagers (15 to 19 year-olds) and young adults (20 to 24 year-olds) in Australia are participating in formal education and training at higher rates than in the past; despite this increase, young people living in remote or very remote locations and Indigenous young Australians continue to experience far lower education and training engagement and achievements; there has also been an increase in youth unemployment, underemployment, labour underutilisation and rates of casual employment among young people; and overall, young Australians are delaying full-time work, independence from parents, marriage, starting a family and owning a home.

Excerpts from publication. Show less

The National Review of Nursing Education 2002 was initiated in April 2001 to examine the future nursing educational needs of the health, community and aged care system in Australia and to provide advice on appropriate education policy and funding frameworks. The Review examined the effectiveness of current arrangements for the education and training of nurses, labour market factors affecting the employment of nurses and the choice of nursing as an occupation, and the key factors driving the demand for, and supply of, nursing education and training. The Review sought to make recommendations on models of nursing education and training, the types of skills and knowledge required, and mechanisms for attracting new recruits to nursing and encouraging the commitment to lifelong learning of those already engaged in nursing. The Review commissioned a wide range of research and six literature reviews. This report focuses on workforce models built for both university trained registered nurses and enrolled nurses trained in the vocational education sector. It is presented in five sections: the first section looks at the changes that have occurred in the nursing workforce during the 1990s, specifically looking at the major employment trends; the second section, using 'shift-share analysis' and primarily concerned with demand considerations, examines in detail the changes in the employment of nurses; in the third section, a dynamic model is built focusing on the supply side to better understand the relationship between nursing numbers, inflows of new graduates and migrants and outflows from the occupation; section four focuses on the interaction of demand and supply in the nursing workforce by comparing projections based on the two models; the final section offers the conclusion of the study. Details of the models and the data are described in a series of appendices.

The volume from which this paper is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 71.717; individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 71.718 to TD/TNC 71.720. The final report of the National Review of Nursing Education 2002 is indexed at TD/TNC 71.180.

This paper was also presented at the 6th National Conference of the Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET). The collection of papers from this conference is indexed at TD/TNC 71.486. Show less

The ageing society has been attracting the attention of policy makers in Australia and in many other countries. This paper considers the labour market for the traditional trades in Australia over the next 40 years and investigates whether the ageing society will pose a workforce problem. The broad conclusion is that the ageing society will significantly impact on the size of the potential trades workforce, but that this is unlikely to result in shortages. Rather, any shortage is more likely to occur if the trades lose their attractiveness relative to other occupations. Moreover, the age distribution of the trades workforce will remain largely unaltered. Show less

High unemployment among the young is a concern in many OECD countries. A key issue for policy makers is whether the education system has a role to play in assisting the transition from education to work or whether economic issues dominate. This paper uses OECD country-level data to see whether the structure of countries' education systems, characterised by the level of participation by age at the various [International Standard Classification of Education] ISCED education levels, affects systematically the level of unemployment for the cohorts aged 20-24 and 25-29 years who should have largely completed their transition to work. Various confounding factors, including overall labour market conditions and demographic structures, are accounted for. [The author finds] that the structure of education systems does make a difference, although the general state of the labour market is critical.

Published abstract. Show less

This overview opened the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) research forum entitled 'Are we there yet?: youth transitions in Australia', held at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney on 11 April 2013. Youth longitudinal surveys have a long history in Australia, dating back to the Youth in Transition study which commenced with a cohort of young people born in 1961. The initial motivation for the surveys was an increase in unemployment, and the changes in the labour market since the 1970s have kept youth transitions an important policy issue. The overview also maps the breadth of topics being researched and how they have changed over the past 25 years. A bonus is a long list of research papers that look at the longitudinal youth data. Show less

The vocational education and training (VET) sector is poorly understood, particularly in relation to the important role it plays in the education of young people. While apprenticeships are seen as a desirable pathway between school and work, and technical and further education (TAFE) is acknowledged as an alternative to university, the actual magnitude of its role is not appreciated. The main reason, in the view of the author, is that it does not fit neatly in a linear world; the ‘complete Year 12 and go to university’ is easy to understand, but for many young people pathways involving VET are a lot less straightforward. The purpose of this paper is to remedy this perception by spelling out the extent of participation in VET and the various pathways that this participation covers. The paper also looks at what is studied and the outcomes, in terms of completion rates, employment and further study, and satisfaction. What emerges is that participation is extremely high for young people, and there are many positive outcomes. But completion rates are variable, and relatively few young people emerge with a middle-level, or higher, qualification. Show less

Five opinion pieces were released in 2013: (1) 'Cultural identity a factor in Indigenous education' by Howard Salkow (released 22 April); (2) 'Schools play a role in impacting tertiary entrance rankings and university enrolment' by Tom Karmel (released 1 June); (3) 'Teaching numeracy in VET' by Tom Karmel (released 22 July); (4) 'Skilling numeracy practitioners' by Howard Salkow (released 14 August); (5) 'Inconsistent university policy and practices impact VET graduates' by Howard Salkow (released 28 November). Show less

One of the most striking features of the modern world is its changing demographic profile. In almost any policy arena, the issue of demographic change (or ageing) sits alongside globalisation, climate change and the knowledge revolution as areas which are transforming societies, including the ways in which we organise and go about our work activities. While ageing has particular salience for developed countries, in fact, the phenomenon is actually more dramatic in developing countries. This significant and worldwide phenomenon motivated an international meeting of a number of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) research agencies, hosted by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) in October 2006. This publication is the result of this meeting and contains the presented papers and comments by discussants. What emerges from the papers is a picture of a worldwide trend that touches many aspects of TVET and the labour market, but one which needs to take into account the very different economies and societies of the world.

Papers include: Policy framework on retraining for reskilling of older workers through specialised TVET programs / TJ Tesoro Gayondato and Myong Hee Kim; Reskilling for all?: the changing role of TVET in ageing societies of developing countries / Margarita Pavlova and Rupert Maclean; The changing context of TVET for the workforce in India / JS Rajput; The reform of the Korean TVET system for an ageing society / Hong-Geun Chang; Will we run out of young men?: implications of the ageing of the population for the trades in Australia / Tom Karmel and Koon Ong; Ageing labour force and retraining of workers in Korea / Jihee Choi; Technical entrepreneurship development for the aged / Man-Gon Park and Suresh K. Dhameja; The ageing TVET workforce in Australia: issues and challenges / Hugh Guthrie and Phil Loveder. Show less

Governments tend to have a very positive perspective on the benefits of study in STEM fields, in contrast to some commentators who observe that the labour market is not particularly good for STEM graduates. On balance, based on Graduate Destination Survey data, we find that new STEM graduates have reasonably positive outcomes in the labour market, and therefore it does little harm to encourage prospective students to study in STEM fields. On the other hand, there is nothing to suggest that non-STEM graduates are missing out on huge opportunities by not studying in STEM fields. We also find that STEM graduates do much better in the labour market if they can find a STEM job compared to a job in a non-STEM field, but only quite a small proportion of STEM graduates transition to a STEM job. Also, STEM graduates get better jobs than non-STEM graduates if they obtain a job in any occupation group except community and personal service workers, and sales.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less