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Known as the Karmel Report and tabled in 1973, this report greatly influenced how schools in Australia were funded. On 12 December 1972 the newly elected Whitlam government appointed an Interim Committee for the Australian Schools Commission. Chaired by Peter Henry Karmel, the Committee was to examine the position of government and non-government primary and secondary schools throughout Australia and to make recommendations on the financial needs of those schools, and the measures to assist in meeting them. The report identified many inequities in the funding system, which for the first time led to the federal government providing funding to state schools. The Interim Committee consisted of Peter Karmel (Chairman), Jean Blackburn (Deputy Chairman), Greg Hancock, Edward T. Jackson, A. W. Jones, F. M. Martin, Peter Tannock, M. E . Thomas, Alice Whitley, and Wilfred A. White. The report was also issued as Parliamentary paper no. 55 of 1973.

Edited excerpt from Australian Policy Online website. Show less

This interim report shares emerging findings and recommendations from a collaborative project between Oxford University Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) and the Education Policy Institute (EPI). Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the project examines post-16 education and training (E&T) in the UK. It is focused on analysing the divergent approaches to E&T policy across the four devolved nations to understand more deeply the key policy issues and challenges facing E&T and the kinds of structures that support young people's transitions from education to employment and help them live fulfilling lives. The report reveals major differences in the provision of post-16 E&T across the UK nations and exposes stark inequalities in outcomes for young learners.

The report finds that: (1) there has been a very high level of policy churn experienced within UK E&T and this has been detrimental, and this near-constant policy churn harms the morale of staff and stakeholders, as well as negatively shaping the aspirations of young people and their perceptions of E&T pathways; (2) there has been significant and growing divergence in education and training policy across the four nations, particularly since devolution in 1999; (3) Wales has the highest share of pupils 'not in education, employment or training' (NEET), with nearly 11 per cent of young people aged 16-18 in Wales classified as NEET in 2022-23, compared with 8 per cent in England, 9 per cent in Scotland and 5 per cent in Northern Ireland; (4) education and labour market outcomes are also worse for working class young people in Wales; young people in Wales from working class backgrounds were the least likely to hold A-level equivalent qualifications (56 per cent in Wales, compared with 60-65 per cent for working class young people in the rest of the UK); and young people from working class backgrounds in Wales were also the least likely to be in employment (71 per cent) when compared with the rest of the UK (74-78 per cent); (5) fewer apprenticeships are taken by young people in England and Wales than in Scotland and Northern Ireland; in England and Wales, only around 20 per cent of apprenticeships are taken by 16-18-year-olds, and 16-18/19-year-olds make up a larger share of total apprenticeships in Scotland (37 per cent) and Northern Ireland (52 per cent); (6) young people are much more likely to attend schools rather than colleges in Scotland and Northern Ireland; about 79 per cent of young people aged 16-17-year-olds were in schools in Scotland and around 60 per cent in Northern Ireland; and these figures were much lower in England (45 per cent) and Wales (35 per cent), with young people more likely to go to colleges; (7) higher education participation among students from lower socio-economic backgrounds is highest in England, and in England, Wales and Scotland there has been an increasing share of higher education enrolments from students from the most deprived areas; and (8) across all four nations, female school leavers are more likely to progress to higher education.

The report recommends that: (1) more active and urgent action is required in Wales, where policymakers should be taking more urgent and active steps to understand and improve post-16 educational outcomes and inequalities; (2) a greater policy focus on inequalities is needed; equipped with better data on inequalities between different groups of students, policymakers across the four nations should be better placed to address the inequalities in post-16 access and outcomes; (3) a new stable policy settlement is needed, and this will require political consensus within each nation on goals and ambitions that can be realised, well-funded institutions and structures, and a stable set of qualifications; and (4) data and statistics should be better, more comparable and more focused on inequalities; the UK government and devolved administrations should make more effort to produce data in ways that allow for comparisons, particularly in terms of inequalities in access to different pathways and outcomes, through linked administrative data.

Edited excerpts from publication and publisher's website. Show less

Meeting the healthcare needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people requires needs-based and strengths-based planning of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait health workforce. Substantial gains have been made over recent decades in growing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce. However, the overall size of this workforce remains low, retention is poor and workforce growth in some areas is not commensurate with population growth. Through the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, Australian governments have recognised that achieving better Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes requires equity in health system investment, system-wide workplace reforms and strength-based approaches that emphasise partnerships with Indigenous organisations and communities. However, at present there is no national commitment to achieving an equitable number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within a culturally safe and responsive health workforce.

We were commissioned by the National Health Leadership Forum to investigate approaches to workforce planning based on the healthcare needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Through reviews of published literature and existing datasets and a renal case study, we show that needs-based workforce planning requires establishing and modelling targets that take into consideration the burden of disease; geographic location of health needs; access to culturally safe care; and addressing deficiencies in the workforce data currently available. Appropriate workforce planning also requires addressing very low retention rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals through structural, system-wide reforms to foster culturally safe workplaces that are free of racism. Realising the need for and contributions of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce to improving health outcomes necessitates working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health peak organisations.

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There are currently six recognised equity groups in the Australian higher education system: people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, people from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, people from regional and remote areas, people with disability and women in non-traditional areas of study. Critics of the Australian higher education equity framework have underscored the existence of other potential sources of educational disadvantage that currently lack official recognition. Given the increasing prevalence of mental health issues among young people, some scholars and equity stakeholders have recommended refining or complementing the existing disability equity group by explicitly incorporating measures of poor mental health. A recent change to the definitions of higher education data elements might be seen as a step towards recognising poor mental health as a condition that can lead to educational disadvantage.

The analyses presented in this report fill two significant knowledge gaps. First, the study investigates the overlap between pre-existing poor mental health and membership in the officially identified equity groups (all of which are also defined on the basis of information preceding the commencement of university studies). Second, the study examines the impact of pre-existing poor mental health on early student outcomes, namely first-year attrition. Altogether, our results unequivocally stress the critical importance of pre-existing poor mental health as a predictor of student attrition during the first year of university. Despite some overlap between students with poor mental health and students who belong to the officially identified equity groups - chiefly students with disability - our results indicate that the disadvantage stemming from pre-existing poor mental health is distinct from that stemming from being a member of any of the designated equity groups.

Based on these findings, three recommendations are formulated: (1) stakeholders at all levels should consider poor mental health as an important factor contributing to first-year student attrition and design more mental health-focused interventions; (2) the Australian Government should consider allocating more funding to support students with disabilities; and (3) the Australian Government should consider funding (a) the collection or linkage of data that enable a more robust examination of the extent and repercussions of poor mental health amongst university students, and (b) research that expands the analytic scope of this report to other phases of the student life cycle.

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The growth of electronic publishing of literature has created new challenges, such as the need for mechanisms for citing online references in ways that can assure discoverability and retrieval for many years into the future. The growth in online datasets presents related, yet more complex challenges. It depends upon the ability to reliably identify, locate, access, interpret, and verify the version, integrity, and provenance of digital datasets. Data citation standards and good practices can form the basis for increased incentives, recognition, and rewards for scientific data activities that in many cases are currently lacking in many fields of research. The rapidly-expanding universe of online digital data holds the promise of allowing peer-examination and review of conclusions or analysis based on experimental or observational data, the integration of data into new forms of scholarly publishing, and the ability for subsequent users to make new and unforeseen uses and analyses of the same data - either in isolation, or in combination with, other datasets. The problem of citing online data is complicated by the lack of established practices for referring to portions or subsets of data. There are a number of initiatives in different organizations, countries, and disciplines already underway. An important set of technical and policy approaches have already been launched by the US National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and other standards bodies regarding persistent identifiers and online linking. The workshop summarized in [this publication] was organized by a steering committee under the National Research Council's (NRC's) Board on Research Data and Information, in collaboration with an international CODATA-ICSTI Task Group on Data Citation Standards and Practices. The purpose of the symposium was to examine a number of key issues related to data identification, attribution, citation, and linking to help coordinate activities in this area internationally, and to promote common practices and standards in the scientific community.

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This report describes how student veterans are understood by universities in Australia, and how they are governed and serviced as a group. The study also investigates if, and how, student veterans, or particular groups of student veterans, can have particular equity needs. This information was placed in the context of how student veterans are recognised, understood and supported internationally. The report aims to provide the basis for a whole-of-system approach to managing student veteran transition from the military to the higher education system and provides a number of recommendations for government, Defence and the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA), and for universities and the higher education sector. Adopting a mixed methods approach, this research was led by Flinders University in partnership with La Trobe University, the University of South Australia (UniSA), the University of Newcastle and the Australian Student Veterans Association (ASVA).

The findings reveal that: (1) Australian student veterans are often acknowledged but not well understood by universities; (2) Australian universities are recognising and servicing student veterans in different ways and to different degrees; (3) there is genuine goodwill and intent in the university sector to support student veterans; (4) military skills and experience are not adequately recognised or incorporated into university admission decisions; (5) tertiary admissions frameworks are variable and would benefit from a national coordinated approach; (6) if universities do not have student veteran-specific programs and processes, they are using existing equity and transition process to support student veterans; (7) universities have support pathways such as 'elite athlete programs' which can be emulated to identify, promote and support the needs of veterans studying at university; (8) almost all Australian universities do not know who their student veterans are - there are limited cases of veteran identifiers in university admissions; (9) universities do not collect demographic, study pattern, performance and completion data on student veterans; (10) there is limited financial support for student veterans to attend university; (11) there are limited specific veteran entry programs at Australian universities; (12) there isn't a national framework for supporting veterans in higher education (e.g. a GI Bill); (13) access and opportunity for higher education is unequal in Defence across rank and corps; (14) higher education is not considered evenly across Defence during the transition phase; (15) there is no national consistent framework for mapping and applying credentials for veterans seeking to engage in higher education; (16) the articulation of policy across Defence, DVA and the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) is inconsistent or missing; (17) higher education as a transition pathway is conceived under a rehabilitation framework limiting opportunities for university study; and (18) not all veterans are exposed to higher education as a possible transition pathway.

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This report covers vocational education and training (VET) initiatives in South Australian government schools in 1999. Activities have been funded by both Commonwealth New Apprenticeship provision and State Government funds through the final year of 'Ready, Set, Go' funding. The purpose of this review is to provide: a quality basis for reporting to key interest groups and funding agencies; assistance to schools, districts and regions in their future VET planning; and an information base for future strategic and policy direction.

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[Artificial intelligence] AI can bring significant benefits to the workplace. In the OECD AI surveys of employers and workers, four in five workers say that AI improved their performance at work and three in five say that it increased their enjoyment of work. But the benefits of AI depend on addressing the associated risks. Taking the effect of AI into account, occupations at highest risk of automation account for about 27 per cent of employment in OECD countries. Workers also express concerns around increased work intensity, the collection and use of data, and increasing inequality. To support the adoption of trustworthy AI in the workplace, this policy paper identifies the main risks that need to be addressed when using AI in workplace. It identifies the main policy gaps and offers possible policy avenues specific to labour markets.

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Transportation agencies face significant workforce challenges as staff are lost to retirement, high turnover rates, and competition with other industries. To address staff shortfalls, state departments of transportation (DOTs) will need to diversify. While women make up close to half of workers in the national workforce, they remain underrepresented at transportation agencies and tend to be siloed in administrative positions. As women outpace men in the attainment of higher education degrees, successful practices and policies that attract, retain, and advance women at state DOTs will become increasingly important. Beyond meeting staffing needs, there is a growing recognition that workforce diversity supplies the variety of perspectives and skill sets needed to successfully solve complex transportation challenges.

Recognizing the underrepresentation of women on staff, many state DOTs have implemented a variety of programs, policies, and practices to address the imbalance between the number of men and women working in different occupational categories. Transportation agencies also recognize the need for better systems to monitor and track workforce diversity. This synthesis report documents current state DOT practices related to advancing gender equity in the workforce, as well as the data collection and assessment practices currently utilized by state DOTs to evaluate impacts.

The synthesis report is organized into five chapters: (1) Introduction - provides background information on the topic, scope, and objectives for the synthesis; (2) Literature review - summarizes major findings from the literature on the topic; (3) Survey results - presents findings from the survey of state DOTs on current practices for advancing gender equity; (4) Case examples - provides additional detail on practices and strategies in place at six state DOTs based on interview data; (5) Summary of findings - summarizes key findings and identifies information gaps and suggestions for additional research. The survey questionnaire is provided in Appendix A, and survey responses appear in Appendix B.

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This report documents the outcomes and results of the CONFINTEA VI recommendations in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) - that is, the progress made in implementing the targets set out in the Belem Framework for Action (BFA) across the region. Particular attention is paid to regional or country action plans and their achievements. Countries in the region are, unfortunately, short on evidence and thus reliable data, which results in strong recommendations to develop greater capacity in gathering information, research, monitoring quality and building partnerships. Positioning adult learning and education (ALE) in the framework of lifelong learning is still a distant goal. Although there has been a promising increase in literacy levels, the number and variety of adult basic education and literacy (alphabetisation) programmes still needs improvement in many SSA countries and post-literacy follow-up is often insufficient. Women predominately attend ALE programmes, especially non-formal education and literacy ones, while men predominate in programmes with a more general focus and technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The number of ALE participants from difficult-to-reach areas is still relatively low.

The BFA's recommendation to make use of common benchmarks and indicators measuring the progress, achievements, quality, limitations and gaps in provision, and the capacity development of educators and trainers, has only been fully achieved in a few countries of the region. In addition, policies show little focus on youth, and government funding remains modest with small gains. On a positive note, governance has improved greatly since 2009 concerning stakeholder participation, inter-ministerial cooperation, decentralized arrangements and coordination of ALE. Data collection is a necessary, integral component of all adult learning and education systems. In SSA, there is an ongoing need for technical support in order to develop capacities for gathering accurate financial data, monitoring donor-funding trends and researching the impact of ALE provision on health, the economy and society.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less