Winter 2007

Careers and transition

The pathway to success

Louise Reynolds reflects on the research into the many important questions facing young Australians as they begin their transition from school to further study and the workforce.

When embarking on a personal education and career path, young people must make a wide range of important decisions about the pathway that is the right for them. Should I leave school early or stick it out to the end of year 12? How would leaving school early affect my employment prospects? Which subjects will give me the best chance of getting into university? Is an apprenticeship or further study the best option?

These decisions can have a long-lasting impact on study and employment options and must not be made lightly. Poor choices can leave young people at risk of a troubled transition from school that may include time ‘bouncing’ between different jobs or study and even lengthy periods of unemployment. It is important that young people make choices about their study and career options that are as informed as possible. Career guidance counsellors, teachers and family have an important role to play. Research studies can also help students, parents, teachers and policy makers to learn from the experiences of others.

The importance of making a smooth transition from school for young Australians has long been recognised by government and educational researchers. Longitudinal studies—those that follow the same group (or ‘cohort’) of people over an extended period of time—are particularly useful for studying the pathways between education, training and work. These studies enable researchers to identify some of the causes and consequences of educational participation among different groups in the Australian population. Longitudinal studies with multiple cohorts examine how these patterns have changed over time.

Helping young Australians and policy makers to gain a clear picture of how young Australians are faring in their transitions from school to further education and training or paid employment is the main focus of a major longitudinal study jointly managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). The Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) tracks several groups of young Australians using annual telephone surveys to gather information on what the study’s participants are doing each year and how they are faring.

LSAY originated in 1995 when ACER’s ‘Youth in Transition’ project and the Commonwealth Government’s Australian Youth Survey (and its predecessor the Australian Longitudinal Survey) were combined. LSAY is currently following three cohorts: a group of young people who were in year 9 in 1998; a group of young people who turned 15 years of age in 2003 and participated in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003; and a new group who turned 15 in 2006 and participated in OECD PISA 2006. For more than a decade, LSAY has added to the knowledge base on a range of issues influencing the transitions young people make from school to work.

The LSAY program reached a significant milestone in February this year with the publication of the 50th research report, Movement of Non-Metropolitan Youth Towards the Cities, by Kylie Hillman and Sheldon Rothman. This report was the first of its kind to examine young people’s geographic mobility. It examined a group of young people who were living in non-metropolitan areas when in year 9 and the extent to which they left home to pursue study or employment in the major cities and the factors influencing those moves. The report found that more than one third of young Australians from non-metropolitan areas relocate to a major city in the years immediately after leaving school and, although some return, non-metropolitan areas experience a net loss of a quarter of their young people. Those making a move to a major city were typically drawn by the pursuit of further study, most often at university. Over the seven-year period examined in the report, approximately 40 per cent of the non-metropolitan youth who had moved to a city were studying either at a university or a TAFE institution or were undertaking an apprenticeship or traineeship.

Particular issues examined in other LSAY reports include: school achievement and school completion; participation in vocational and university education; gaining and maintaining employment; and household and family formation. More detailed investigations have examined links between social characteristics, education and training, and employment.

From LSAY we have learned that many early school leavers progress well in the first few years after leaving school if they gain employment quickly after entering the workforce. Apprenticeships are an important pathway between school and the workforce and can halve the risk of unemployment for school non-completers. The non-apprenticeship VET sector has also been shown to provide successful pathways from school to further education and training for young Australians from all socioeconomic backgrounds.

For those aiming for university, LSAY has shown that course choice at year 12 has a major influence on the educational and career options open to students. One LSAY analysis found that the courses that were the best pathways to higher education, with more than half of their participants entering university, were a mixed group of subjects including advanced mathematics and physical sciences, social sciences and humanities courses. Although most year 12 students make a successful transition to tertiary study or work, some parts of the year 12 curriculum act as better pathways to post-secondary education and training than others, reinforcing the importance of access to quality career guidance in school.

Over the coming months, LSAY reports will be published focusing on university completion, vocational education and training, career advice in schools, early school leavers, and young people’s occupations and earnings. These reports will further add to the knowledge base on transitions from school to further study and work and help young Australians to be well informed when identifying a suitable personal study and career pathway.

Further information

The LSAY research program is managed jointly by ACER and the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training. All of the published reports from the LSAY series are available for download from the ACER website at www.acer.edu.au

Louise Reynolds is corporate publicity and communications manager for the Australian Council for Educational Research in Camberwell.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au