Post-compulsory education and training: Some recent research findings and their policy implications

Abstract

The twenty-first century has ushered in a new phase in the history of secondary education in Australia. Behind lies a decade of stagnation in which the economic impulses to greater use of school have not been strong enough to drive up retention rates. These peaked during the 1990 recession and subsequently fell back to the levels of the late 1980s, when around 3 in 4 young people completed school. There has been little movement since. Policy-makers are concerned about the lack of growth, and have begun to set targets. Reviews of post-compulsory education and training (or of the senior secondary curriculum alone) have been undertaken or are in progress in several States and Territories, and the federal government has funded vocational programs to make schools focus more on employment. Though no doubt from different points of view or different value perspectives, governments across Australia are determined to change how secondary education works. More young people are expected to complete school and the orientation of school programs is being broadened. When participation in school involves as many as three in four young people, the policy drive to extend this still further naturally raises the questions, What is at stake? Why is more growth needed? Is it feasible or even desirable to keep 80% or as many as 90% of the age-group at school (or the majority of these, with the rest in training)? To answer these questions involves examining the extent and the value of participation in post-compulsory education and training on the part of different populations, while keeping in mind the historical context within which participation reached its current levels. To do this, we will draw on an extensive national survey of early school leavers administered during 2000, on data from the Educational Outcomes Survey conducted across Australia between 19941996, and on findings from the tracking of over 6,000 students in the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) in 1998. These sources provide insights into the