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This study investigates whether, between 1981 and 2001, there have been significant changes in the timing and sequencing of the major life transitions of Australians, such as partnering, parenthood, entry to and exit from paid work and post-secondary education, and the implications of these changes.
This report is part of the larger research program, ‘A well-skilled future: Tailoring VET to the emerging labour market’.
- The life-course patterns of Australians have changed steadily, with the proportion following unconventional life trajectories slowly increasing between 1981 and 2001. Nevertheless, a majority of people continue to follow well-established conventional life-course pathways. These trends are likely to continue.
- The widespread acceptance of working motherhood and living alone are the major changes in standard life-course patterns. The withdrawal of prime-aged men (between 25 and 54 years) from the labour force and the rise of single parenthood are amongst the rising instances of unconventional life trajectories, as is an increased number of people beginning post-secondary education after their 20s.
- The vocational education and training (VET) sector has been significantly more affected by rising unconventional life trajectories than the university sector. In particular, its part-time student body has a growing proportion of people following unconventional life courses, notably commencing post-secondary education late, being single parents, and being prime-aged men without full-time work.
- Given the continuation of existing patterns of skill utilisation through the life course, the VET sector has an important opportunity for catering to the special circumstances of its increasingly unconventional part-time student body, thereby enhancing the employment opportunities of these relatively disadvantaged groups and increasing the supply of relevant skills to the Australian labour market.
- People in trades occupations display a distinct pattern, whereby they obtain training and enter the occupations by their mid-20s and then steadily exit the occupations over their working lives, beginning this exit soon after they qualify. This is in contrast to people in professional occupations who are trained and enter the occupations by their later 20s but who do not leave the occupations in substantial numbers until retirement.
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