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Attrition rates provide a measure of the proportion of students who 'drop out' of [Queensland University of Technology] QUT each year. Attrition rates are one of a range of indicators used to measure performance at QUT. As such they should be viewed in conjunction with other indicators such as access, participation and retention rates to obtain a full picture of performance. For policy and program development it is important to know if particular groups or categories of students are more inclined to drop out of higher education than others, and whether attrition is greater in particular faculties.

Attrition rates measure the proportion of students in a particular year (first year or cohort year) who leave the university and do not re-enrol the following year (the outcome year). For the purposes of this report [the authors] are measuring students who commenced in 2013 (cohort year) and whether or not they returned or did not reenrol in 2014. The attrition rate for all QUT students in 2013-2014 has lowered to 11.70 per cent from 13.04 per cent in 2012-2013. Attrition has been around 12-13 per cent in previous years, with a break in the trend in 2010-2011, where it was at its lowest (10.76 per cent). The university's objective is that students in equity groups have attrition rates comparable to other students. For example, Indigenous student attrition is at 17.27 per cent compared with 11.70 per cent for all QUT students and students with a disability have a rate of attrition at 14.14 per cent compared with the overall QUT figure of 11.70 per cent. Some equity target groups drop out at much higher levels in some faculties compared with others, indicating a need to develop additional mechanisms to support these particular cohorts within their disciplines.

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[Queensland University of Technology] QUT, as with all other Australian universities in receipt of federal government funding, monitors the access, representation, success, retention and attrition of the following student equity target groups designated by the Department of Education: Aboriginal students and Torres Strait Islander students; students from non-English speaking backgrounds (nEsb); students from regional and remote areas; students from low socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds; students with a disability (SWD); and women in non-traditional areas of study. This publication presents available data for these groups.

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Educational pathways for young people cannot be viewed as a linear progression through primary, secondary, and tertiary level institutions. The number of young people aged between 15-19 who have not attained their senior school certificate, and who are undertaking vocational education and training (VET), exceeds 127,000. Yet, vocational training can also be complex, undertaken within and beyond the mainstream secondary school context, and often in both simultaneously. In addition, we can no longer assume that vocational training for young people will take place solely within large, state funded institutions such as TAFEs. A greater reliance by state and federal governments on market driven funding models - as well as on subsidised training entitlements - has contributed to a rapid growth in the number of private commercial registered training organisations (PCRTOs) that are training the 15-19 year old cohort. Little is known about how this much commented upon provider type approaches the training of 15-19 year olds, and particularly those that had failed to attain Year 12 level.

This presentation conveys findings of the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) funded research into the role played by PCRTOs in delivering entry-level programs (Certificates I and II) for 15-19 year old early school leavers. It draws on nation-wide semi-quantitative surveying of private providers, interviews with industry stakeholders, and with those working in case study PCRTOs in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. It shows how PCRTOs respond to the needs of early school leavers, as well as the role played by entry level vocational programs in this context. It will identify innovation and adaptation of conventional approaches to vocational training, as well as the changes that may be needed to ensure that this growing cohort of often disadvantaged learners achieve successful outcomes.

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Mentoring is under the spotlight as a strategy to address the high rates of unemployment and low rates of job retention in Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. One federal government funded strategy has injected $6.1 million dollars into Job Services Australia (JSA, now jobactive) pilot mentoring programs around the country over the past three years. These pilots have had varying rates of success, with the Department of Employment defining a positive outcome as 26 weeks job retention. One such pilot, targeting young people less than 26 years of age, was conducted between 2012 and 2015 in the Inala area of Queensland. This is an urban locale generally known to be suffering significantly high levels of disadvantage, particularly associated with low levels of education, inadequate housing, mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse and imprisonment (Vinson, Rawsthorne, Beavis, and Ericson, 2015).

A series of evaluative studies were conducted by the JSA provider, BoysTown, over the course of the three year pilot. These studies found the mentoring model used on this site, whilst not reaching Department of Employment three year indicators of success, nevertheless achieved a number of important outcomes within the three year timeframe. These included expanded bridging forms of social capital in the local Aboriginal community, achieved through overall increased engagement in the labour market by their young people. This paper describes the phases involved in assisting program clients to achieve increased rates of job seeking, placement and long-term retention, and maps the spectrum of mentoring activities required at each stage.

The paper highlights the breadth of skillsets concealed within the title of 'Indigenous Mentor' under this complex employment services based funding model, and argues that policy goals of increased job retention will be best achieved through the employment of more than one of these highly skilled Indigenous mentors in employment placement service offices. This paper extends existing explorations into the range of barriers to young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's long-term employment prospects. It focuses particular attention on the impact of extended kinship obligations on work attendance and the unique role that Aboriginal mentors are in a position to play in bridging communication breakdowns between employer and employee. It also challenges government policy settings which determine employment 'success' should be measured in terms of six months job retention in a labour market environment of short-term and casual work.

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This paper outlines [Doctorate of Philosophy] PhD research which suggests mobile learning fits the cultural philosophies and roles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who are preservice teachers in the very remote Australian communities where the research was conducted. The problem which the research addresses is the low completion rates for two community-based Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs in South Australia (SA) and Queensland (Qld). Over the past decade, the national completion rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in teacher training was 36 per cent, and in these two community-based programs it was less than 15 per cent. This paper identifies the perceptions of the benefits of using mobile devices by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who are preservice teachers in very remote communities. They report ways in which mobile learning supports their complex roles and provides pragmatic positive outcomes for their tertiary study in remote locations. The paper describes the apparent alignment between mobile learning and cosmology, ontology, epistemology and axiology, which may underpin both the popularity of mobile devices and the affordances of mobile learning.

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The recruitment, retention and graduation of more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers is a key focus of the national and federally funded More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teachers Initiative (MATSITI, 2012). Currently, the enrolment and program completion of Indigenous initial teacher education students across all education programs at the University of Queensland, and indeed across Australia, is well below the national average. The aims of this seed project were to develop and evaluate the use and effectiveness of a mentoring program as a positive intervention for building and sustaining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander initial teacher education students' participation in tertiary education programs, their self-efficacy as teachers, their professional identity as teachers and their readiness to teach. The project builds upon existing work in the field by exploring the experience and effectiveness of cross-cultural mentoring programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander initial teacher education students.

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In February 2015, the seventh 'Closing the Gap' report since targets were set in 2008 was published. It states, 'increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' participation in further training and education resulting in employment is critical to Indigenous economic development' (page 23). This paper will report on how the unique features of a vocational education qualification have enabled a specific group of Aboriginal and Islander people to participate in further training and education i.e. male prisoners in two south east Queensland correctional centres. The initiative was conceived of and implemented by members of local Indigenous communities in the region (in collaboration with a local registered training organisation) and focuses on teaching the Certificate III in Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Cultural Arts to mainly young men in prison. Based on the results of three years of delivery so far, 50 graduates and 50 more current students, this presentation will discuss not only matters such as students' pathways to further study and work, but how the process of getting the qualification itself achieved outcomes that go well beyond (and therefore greatly enhance) the merely vocational. Studying the certificate has enabled these men to explore very personal and fundamental questions of identity: How can you know where you are going, if you first do not know who you are and where you come from? The findings of this paper may have valuable applications to other community and correctional settings.

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