Research Projects

One of the major policy thrusts of Australian governments in recent years has been the creation of flexible pathways between education, training and paid employment. Understanding the transitions between education, training and work is greatly facilitated by longitudinal surveys of cohorts of young people.

Using annual telephone interviews, the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) project studies the progress of several groups of young Australians as they move from school into post-secondary education and work. The oldest group in the project comprised people born in 1961; the youngest group comprises people born between 1 May 1987 and 30 April 1988.

Annual surveys provide information on what young Australians are doing and how they manage the many transitions they make after school. By incorporating data from older longitudinal studies within the LSAY program, it is possible to compare the current cohorts’ pathways and outcomes to older cohorts’ when they were the same age.

More detailed investigations look at the links between social characteristics, education and training, and employment. Issues investigated in the LSAY project include school achievement and school completion, participation in vocational and university education, gaining and maintaining employment, and household and family formation.

In July 2007, the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) awarded the contract to manage the LSAY research program to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). At the time of this decision, there were a number of research reports, briefing papers, cohort reports and technical papers written by ACER that were awaiting publication. ACER will publish these reports and papers over the coming months and make them available on the ACER website. The ACER LSAY website will continue to maintain all LSAY reports and information published by ACER since 1995.

Information on the LSAY program from July 2007 onwards can be obtained from http://www.ncver.edu.au