Three decades of research into young people’s education and post-school transitions reveals trends for future generations.

ACER has conducted extensive research into young people’s education and post-school transitions over the last 30 years, through the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) and earlier studies.

ACER Principal Research Fellow Dr Sheldon Rothman and Research Fellow Kylie Hillman presented their findings at the annual ACER conference in Brisbane in August.

Longitudinal studies such as LSAY give a clear picture of what young people are up to at any point in time and the pathways they took to get there. The capacity to follow the same young people over time means that the factors influencing their pathways and outcomes can be identified and the employment experiences of successive generations can be tracked.

Rothman and Hillman’s analysis of the trends in young people’s participation in education from the 1970s until this year reveals several important patterns.

The research shows that young people’s literacy or numeracy levels have remained constant since 1975, showing no decline overall. There have, however, been changes to the patterns of literacy and numeracy over time: the average literacy scores for males have declined, while the average literacy scores have improved for females and for students with language backgrounds other than English.

Year 12 completion rates have increased dramatically, from 35 per cent in 1975 to 79 per cent in recent years, mostly for students from lower-socioeconomic-status families, in non-metropolitan areas and in government schools.

For school non-completers, the proportion undertaking apprenticeships and traineeships increased from 24 to 40 per cent over the last 30 years.

Participation in higher education has doubled over the period, from 20 to 40 per cent.

Students’ subject choices in secondary school have been found to relate to the patterns of their education and workforce participation in later life.

Students who study advanced maths and physical sciences, or humanities and social sciences in secondary school tend to enter university. Those who study business, other sciences and technical-vocational courses tend to commence a mix of further study and workforce participation immediately after secondary school, such as undertaking part-time work and part-time study, or apprenticeships or traineeships.

Students who choose service-vocational subjects or who study a range of eclectic subjects without a clear post-school pathway are least likely to enter further study. Students who choose these subjects are the most likely to have unfavourable post-school outcomes such as being un- or under-employed, or to be employed in work that is unsatisfying.

Consistently over the last 30 years, young people’s overall feelings of satisfaction with their lives has been found to relate to their education and training activities and their participation in the labour force. Secondary school students working in part-time or casual jobs report higher levels of happiness than other students, particularly with regard to their social lives, their independence and the money they have each week. Young adults who are fully occupied in study or work or some combination of the two activities report higher levels of satisfaction with their lives than those who were not.

In their home lives, young people who are married are consistently more satisfied than those who are in de facto relationships and those who are single, despite marriage among young adults (ages 20–25) declining significantly and more people entering de facto relationships. In particular, young women are less likely to get married if they are studying. Having children had no impact on wellbeing.

Being married and employed contribute to the likelihood of young people owning their own homes, but home ownership is being delayed with successive generations. The percentage of Australians purchasing homes in their 20s has decreased steadily since the 1960s; in the 1990s less than one-third of 26-year-olds surveyed had managed to buy a home, and less than two-thirds had done so by age 30.

Correspondingly, young people today are not making a move from the parental home directly into a home of their own, but are spending increasing numbers of years in rental accommodation.

Young people are also increasingly living in their parents’ homes for longer, although those from non-metropolitan areas were more likely to leave home earlier. Interestingly, people’s attitudes to living with their parents changed over time. For young people in the 1980s, living with their parents at age 20 was associated with lower levels of satisfaction, while for those in the 1990s there was no relationship, and among young people this decade, living with their parents is associated with higher levels of satisfaction.

This research into the changing nature of young people’s education and post-school transitions will inform planning and policy to prepare future generations of young people as they embark on their own post-school journeys.

A copy of the conference presentation X, Y and Z: Three decades of education, employment and social outcomes of Australian youth, delivered by Sheldon Rothman and Kylie Hillman at ACER's Research Conference 2008,‘Touching the future: Building skills for life and work’ can be dowloaded from the conference website.

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