Learning and Earning for All: Why the Fuss

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Learning and Earning for All Why the Fuss?
John Spierings DUSSELDORP SKILLS FORUM August 2007
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Dusseldorp Skills Forum

• Established 1988 by Lend Lease shareholders
• Independent public interest enterprise
• Operating foundation with policy, research
  practice arms
• Focus youth, skills, participation, citizenship
• Seeks individual, community policy change
• Catalyst for significant legislative, policy
  practice change in education and training

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The challenge of youth transition

• Social cultural induction to adulthood
  workforce
• Successful transitions are taking longer
• First 12 months post-school are central to
  successful transitions
• Economic impacts on participation productivity
  returns from good transitions are very large
• Potential offset to looming demographic squeeze
• Demand for knowledge workers outpacing others

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(No Transcript)
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Why the fuss NOW

• Unprecedented economic conditions growth
• Strong domestic demand for skills
• International competitiveness dependent on skills
• Others powering ahead on skills education
• We have education training building blocks
• Imperative to really deliver
• Demographic squeeze looming

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We are not running out of young people
Teenage population as a proportion of the
workforce population,1986-2026
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What young people are thinking

• Newspoll survey of Australians aged 18-24 years
• Substantial qualitative work by Saulwick Muller
• Optimistic, confident fearless about the future
• Positive about final year at school, work
  study
• Engagement significantly affected by early school
  leaving, school type, parental background
• Significant disaffection among casual workers
• Some concerns about education costs
• Significantly higher levels of dissatisfaction
  by respondents from a government school about
  their final year at school

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Some policy contradictions

• Australias excellence equity gap
• From mass schooling to universal provision
• Attractions of the labour market
• Poor resource allocation across sectors
• Core standards alongside customised learning
• Points of change in very large systems
• Civic virtues of learning instrumental outcomes

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School leavers not fully engaged
Slightly more than 26 of 2005 school-leavers
were not in study or work full-time in May 2006.
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Completing Year 12 matters
20 of Y12 leavers 45 of Y11 leavers 50 of
Y10 leavers not fully engaged six months after
leaving school a major opportunity gap.
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Growth in full-time jobs since 1995
1.270 million full-time jobs created for 25-64
year olds since 1995 static full-time job growth
for teenagers decline of 42,000 for young
adults.
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Core attainment issues

• School or Cert III completion rate of 81 percent
• Relatively static completions for more than a
  decade
• Indigenous completion at half this rate
• 20th in OECD for school completion
• 46 of school leavers not in post-school study
• 47 overall traineeship completion rate
• 60 traditional apprenticeship completion rate

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Estimated Year 12 completion
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Core engagement issues

• Noticeable improvement in recent years
• 13.8 of teenagers not fully engaged
• 22 of young adults not fully engaged
• 27 of SA young adults not fully engaged
• 526,000 or 18 of 15-24 yo not fully engaged
• 306,000 or 11 of 15-24 yo unemployed,
  underemployed or marginally attached to work
• 13 Year 11 leavers 25 Year 10 leavers not
  fully engaged as young adults

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The policy challenge

• Subject to their ability, every young Australian
  will
• Attain Year 12 or an AQF III qualification
• Be engaged in full-time work or learning or a
  combination of these
• Be provided with the resources, relationships
  integrated pathways to achieve these outcomes
• Independent evaluation, research good practice
  approach reporting to parliament

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What works

• Relationships mentoring case management for
  transition
• Organic stakeholder partnerships shared
  responsibility
• Leadership by school principals
• Tracking post-school pathways role of data
• Clear exit procedures
• Quality career advice guidance
• Local knowledge about pathways
• Successful transition from primary school
• Student-centred middle years
• Making the economic case

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Crunch Time proposals

• Establish Certificate III as a major benchmark
• Encourage demand-side intermediaries
• Develop cross-sectoral settings alongside schools
• Provide a guaranteed second chance for young
  adults
• Review the purpose of traineeships
• Consider segmenting traineeships as skill
  pathfinders transitional labour market
  platforms
• Incremental change rather than sweeping reform
• Emphasis on evaluation, good practice
  accountability

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Final comments

• Young Australians are confident fearless
• Early school leaving, school type parental
  background can significantly affect engagement
• Gaps around policy rhetoric current resources
• Significant opportunity to address Australias
  3Ps
• A robust national debate is crucial
• Its up to us the investment policy decisions
  we make will determine if youth confidence is
  justified