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.
This paper investigates what might be the vocational equivalent to completing senior secondary school. Three dimensions are considered: volume of learning, educational complexity and labour market, and other outcomes at age 25 (the last based on the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth). The report finds that no vocational pathway can be considered to be equivalent to Year 12 in a literal sense; vocational pathways form an alternative to Year 12 but are not equivalent.
In this report the authors seek to answer the question of whether combining school and work is detrimental or beneficial to a student's school educational performance and labour market outcomes. They find that young people who combine school and work are distributed right across the school population. Results show that individuals can combine school and work with minimal impact on their study if the hours are modest and those working longer hours show a stronger orientation towards work than study. The authors used data from the 2003 cohort (Y03) of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth.