This report explores the relationship between vocational education and training in (VET) in Schools and the labour market.
This report looks at the impact working while studying has on students' intentions to go to university and their actual enrolment in university.
This report comes out of a three-year program of research that aims to investigate how best the tertiary education and training system might be organised to maintain the employability of Australian workers across their working lives.
This report aims to throw some light on the role that skills sets play in meeting the needs of clients compared with full qualifications, which are seen as the foundation of the vocational education and training (VET) system.
This report investigates the role that qualifications play in the labour mobility of foreign workers who come to Australia for permanent or temporary migration.
This report explores the movements that workers make in the workforce and whether there are any commonalities.
Increasing education and training is considered one means by which to reduce the extent of social exclusion and as such has been a key focus in recent public policies. This study investigates the impact of education and training on the extent of social exclusion using a measure of multidimensional social exclusion. A simulation of the effect of the COAG target relating to halving the proportion of 20-64 year olds without at least a certificate III qualification between 2009 and 2020 on the measure of multi-dimensional social exclusion is also undertaken. The study finds a clear dichotomy in the extent of social exclusion experienced between those with low levels of education (early school leavers or those with a certificate II qualification at the most) and the rest.
This working paper is an initial examination of what is known about pathways in tertiary education, as well as the loose associations between vocational qualifications and the jobs graduates do. The author is also interested in the link between educational qualifications and work and finds that these are not as strong as might be expected in a vocationally oriented tertiary education system like Australia’s. This work is part of the three-year research program, 'Vocations: the link between post compulsory education and the labour market'.
Focusing on four vocational streams – financial services, primary industry, healthcare/community services and trades/engineering – this paper is an initial exploration of pathways into the labour market and how people actually use these pathways.
This discussion paper introduces the overarching concepts for the three-year research program, 'Vocations: the link between post compulsory education and the labour market'. The paper also outlines the key findings from the initial investigations of each of the related research strands in the program. Overall, initial research has found that, due to the fragmentation of pathways within education and within the labour market, the relationship of pathways between education and the labour market are also fragmented. In order to understand this more clearly, the authors explore the concepts of transition systems, skill ecosystems and capabilities. A number of dilemmas for further research are also put forward.
What would prompt people to undertake education and training in their mid-20s and beyond and what are the benefits? The authors investigate what motivates people to undertake education and training at more mature ages and the impact of this on their labour market outcomes. They found that males who undertake further education and training after the age of 25 years did so for reasons related to their current employment (for example, towards promotion or a different job), whereas for females a key motivator was simply getting a job. For both males and females, a sustained increase in job satisfaction following completion of the study was also found. Data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia Survey and the Survey of Education and Training was used in this report.
This report compares the outcomes for young people who complete certificate I or certificate II qualifications with the outcomes for similar individuals who are not participating in post-school education and training, using data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth.
In recent decades Australian immigration policy has focused mostly on accepting high-skilled migrants. This report explores the question of whether participation in further training differs for these migrants compared with that of native-born workers in similar jobs. The research shows that foreign-born workers in Australia seem to receive the training they need, but this depends on whether or not they are native English speakers. Non-native English-speaking migrants demonstrate low training participation rates. They also have lower literacy skills and are less likely to be in employment.
This report examines whether expansion in education has led to credentialism in the workforce. The authors employ the ‘ORU’ model to compare the required level of education for a job and the actual level which is held by an individual in that job. This model defines an individual as being over-educated (O) for their job, having the right level of education (R), or being under-educated (U). Credentialism is then measured against the benchmark ‘right’ level for older cohorts. Findings show that younger cohorts will suffer from credentialism to the extent that more of them are over-educated compared with the older cohort. The ‘bite’ of credentialism is then measured by the wage penalty associated with this over education. However, the penalty is a modest one and on the whole additional study results in skills which are rewarded by higher wages.
An increasing and important requirement of any funded research program is the ability to demonstrate that it is relevant and useful to public policy and to practitioners. This study takes the framework NCVER developed for measuring research impact to assess the outcomes from research and activities funded under the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth Research Innovation and Expansion Fund. It finds that the purpose of the fund, to start a ripple effect in the use of the LSAY data, was met, and that the research undertaken had strong resonances in the media as well as proving useful to government officials and practitioners working in the area of youth transitions.
To provide insights into how young people may fare in the current economic downturn, this study examines the experience of youth in a previous downturn.
This paper aims to explain the extent to which variation in apprenticeship completion rates can be attributed to factors relating to 'culture' of the employer and apprentice.
This report was prepared for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to throw light on the growing trend of taking a 'gap year' between school completion and commencing university study.
Research has shown that overskilling — where workers are not fully using their skills in their jobs — can lead to reduced wages and job satisfaction. This report builds on that previous research and investigates the persistence of overskilling mismatch and the effect of past mismatch on wages.
This occasional paper traces the evolution of Australia's apprenticeship system from European settlement in 1788 to the present day. It complements an earlier NCVER paper by Ray (2001), which concentrated on the second half of the 20th century. The present paper develops a number of major themes.