how to help more disadvantaged young people go to uni and TAFE

On Wednesday, Education Minister Jason Clare hailed an increase in the numbers of Australians starting a university degree. In 2024, there was a 3.7% increase in Australian students starting a degree, compared to the year before.

This follows Clare’s ambition to see more Australians with a tertiary qualification. The federal government wants 80% of workers to have a TAFE or university qualification by by 2050, up from the current 60%.

A key part of this will be supporting more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to go on to further study.

How can we do this? New data from the OECD and a new report from The Smith Family give us further insight into the issues and shows what is working for a group of disadvantaged young Australians.

Young people and career uncertainty

Last month, the OECD launched a tool to track teenagers’ career readiness across internationally comparable indicators.

This shows us how disadvantaged Australian students are less likely than advantaged students to have certainty about the kind of job they would like at age 30 (69% compared to 77%).

In this context, we are talking about socioeconomic disadvantage, including parents’ education and occupation and resources at home. This can have a “powerful influence” on students’ learning outcomes.

Career uncertainty is an issue because studies suggest teenagers who have clear plans typically have better employment outcomes.

What about ambition?

Even for those with some certainty about the kind of occupation they would like to be working in at age 30, there is a significant gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students’ ambitions.

The OECD tool shows 55% of disadvantaged students aspire to work as a senior manager or professional, compared to 80% of advantaged students. Similarly, 56% of disadvantaged students aspire to undertake tertiary education (either via a short course or university) compared to 85% of advantaged students.

Disadvantaged students are also more likely to aspire to an occupation that requires tertiary education while not planning to complete a qualification at that level. One in four (26%) disadvantaged students are misaligned in such ambitions compared to 9% of advantaged students.

Disadvantaged students are less likely to say they feel well-prepared for their future after school (57% compared to 70%) and less likely to have searched the internet for information about careers (80% compared to 91%).

These trends suggest a need to enhance career education in school that supports disadvantaged students to better plan and prepare for their post-school pathways.

What can help?

A new report provides insight into how we can better support disadvantaged young people in their careers.

From 2021 to 2023, The Smith Family did surveys and interviews with the same group of financially disadvantaged young people. There were almost 800 young people in the group, who were in Year 12 in 2020. They came from all Australian states and territories.

Echoing the OECD data, participants were often uncertain about where to go for help or how to develop and pursue a career pathway they valued. The study showed several things can help young people find a path to work, training or study after school. They include:

• a focus on direct career development skills both at school and post-school. This should include personalised career advice and support, which helps young people articulate their post-school plans and the steps required to achieve this plan

• support that starts earlier than Year 12

• support for family members’ to access up-to-date labour market, education and training information and support strategies

• providing more opportunities to meet employers and build career-related adult networks.

One young person, Byron, talked about how his careers adviser at school had organised for him to meet a paramedic and find out what the role involved.

[My teacher] helped me get information for how I could achieve that goal […].

Braden – whose parents had not finished school – also talked about emotional support provided by his high school teachers:

There were a lot of teachers who were very supportive and really wanted to see me make it through.

Does it work?

With these supports, most young people in the study were trying to build their careers, through work, study or a combination of both.

By their third year after leaving school, 87% were working and/or studying and 60% were on track to complete a post-school qualification. This is up from 77% in the first year of the study. As Evanna, who is working towards her goal of joining the police, said “I’m not going to give up”.