The ageing society has been attracting the attention of policy-makers in Australia and in many other countries. This paper considers the labour market for the traditional trades in Australia over the next 40 years and investigates whether the ageing society will pose a workforce problem. The broad conclusion is that the ageing society will significantly impact on the size of the potential trades workforce, but that this is unlikely to result in shortages. Rather, any shortage is more likely to occur if the trades lose their attractiveness relative to other occupations. Moreover, the age distribution of the trades workforce will remain largely unaltered.
The relationship between education, including vocational education and training (VET), and measures of health and wellbeing is explored in this report. Previous research in the area indicates that the relationship is also influenced by intermediary variables such as income. This report uses the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) data to examine the relationship between education and physical and mental health, and interviews with practitioners.
School vocational education and training (VET) programs were introduced to provide more diverse pathways to work and further study for young people. This report investigates whether these programs provide successful outcomes for participants, in terms of retention to Year 12 (or its vocational equivalent) and full-time engagement with employment or learning. The report finds that participation in school VET programs has a small negative impact on retention from Year 10 to Year 12 overall but that there is a positive impact on Year 10 to Year 11 retention. There is a clear positive impact on post-school outcomes for students who participate in school VET programs in Year 11 but do not go on to complete Year 12. Finally, the report looks at whether school VET programs have been successful in establishing post-school VET pathways. The results show that these programs provide a clear pathway for some students, particularly for boys studying in the areas of building and engineering. For most students, however, the pathway is not so direct.