A recent report by NCVER’s Patrick Lim has highlighted the importance of VET as an educational re-engagement pathway for early school leavers: those who leave before completing Year 12.
Using data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth (LSAY) the report “highlights the importance of providing career information not only to young people before and after they leave school, but also to their parents or guardians.”
What the LSAY data tell us
Lim’s research confirms “that VET is an important pathway for educational re-engagement for early school leavers.” He found that:
“About 75% of the LSAY respondents who left school before completing Year 12 re-engaged with some form of education by the age of 25. About 63% re-engaged with education via VET.”
In addition, of the LSAY respondents who re-engaged with some form of education after leaving school early,
“just over half (51%) entered into apprenticeships and traineeships … [while] other VET courses (certificates and diplomas), not delivered as part of an apprenticeship or traineeship, made up 34% of all educational re-engagement.”
Parents are a really important element in the process, the report found – and:
“Parents’ plans for their child the year after the child had left school were shown to influence educational re-engagement through VET, with those whose parents wanted them to go on to VET more likely to follow that pathway.”
Having done some VET in schools was also a factor in re-engaging in education through VET.
In addition, socio-economic status plays a part, with those with lower socioeconomic status being “less likely to re-engage with education than those with higher socioeconomic status.” This impact can “be overcome to some extent if their parents had post-school VET plans for their child.” School type is also a factor, with re-engagement more likely for those from independent or Catholic schools.
Thus:
“The groups of early school leavers who were least likely to re-engage with education were those from lower SES; those whose parents did not have any post-school VET aspirations for their children; and those who had lower achievement in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) mathematics scales at the age of 15.”
Re-engagement tends to happen quite quickly, though. The LSAY data suggests this generally occurs within 6 months of leaving school.
Important message: good career advice is critical
Lim’s report “demonstrates the importance of school students (and their parents) holding career aspirations, which can be developed through career-planning activities.” He suggests:
“Career advice and pastoral care for young people must start well before senior secondary school and it is also important that these services are available to young people who are no longer engaged in the school system.”
This has been borne out by involvement in other research work, for example women studying in male dominated trades. Here careers advice and parental support were important, but the attitudes of schools are important as well with them recognising their need to educate and provide pathways for all their learners, not just those with a higher education trajectory.
The report has an associated support document which provides a set of supplementary data tables to the report itself.
