This review, by Anne Hugo, first appeared in Youth Field Xpress, August 2007 edition.
'How young people are faring 2007'
In both the Dusseldorp Skills Forum's newly released reports, 'How young people are faring 2007', and 'It's crunch time: Raising youth engagement and attainment', it is emphasised that those young Australians who have not completed school, or who have no Certificate III qualification, are likely to face long-term disadvantages in the labour market, echoing Richard Curtain's words in 1999, in the DSF's very first annual 'How young people are faring' report: a "lack of basic education qualifications is a source of the longer-term vulnerability for many young people in the labour market".
Australian school completion rates have barely shifted in the past 15 years, with Australia being ranked 20th among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for its school completion rates for 25- to 34-year-olds, according to Richard Sweet, a former senior analyst at the OECD, speaking at a 2006 forum on youth transitions, held by the Brotherhood of St Laurence. Those 24-year-old Australians who have not completed school or its equivalent are twice as likely to be unemployed as their peers who have completed that level of education. Only in the Czech Republic is that ratio higher. Citing this in 'How young people are faring 2007' (p.11) the Dusseldorp Skills forum adds that "real improvements have occurred in the level of full-time engagement of teenagers, school leavers and young adults", coupled with Australia's economic achievements in the past decade, which now give Australia a unique opportunity to "cement institutional arrangements to ensure that all young people are engaged, skilled and developed over the long-term ... not only for the well-being of young people and their families, but also because the ongoing need for a skilled workforce" and a looming demographic squeeze facing Australia.
Data for 'How young people are faring 2007' was prepared by Mike Long at the Monash University ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET) in cooperation with the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Contact details: Dusseldorp Skills Forum, 1 Glebe St, Glebe, NSW 2037; ph: (02) 9571 8347; fax: (02) 9571 9703; email: info [AT] dsf.org.au; web: http://www.dsf.org.au
Note:
Further information on school to work transitions is contained in a 2007 discussion paper by G. Quintini, J.P. Martin and S. Martin (Institute for the Study of Labor, Germany 2007), titled, '
The changing nature of the school-to-work transition process in OECD countries'.
Its authors conclude that "there is agreement that, in order to improve youth job prospects, it is essential to combat school failure. In particular, early and sustained intervention can help prevent a vicious circle of cumulative disadvantages". Many OECD countries have managed to improve school completion rates, but "high youth unemployment remains a serious problem in many OECD countries". See: http://preview.tinyurl.com/29euzd