Preparing Early

This project evaluated the impact of a full-time preparatory year of schooling on school management and school communities, curriculum and pedagogy, resourcing, children’s learning outcomes and development, and children’s preparedness for compulsory schooling. It also identified the key components that impact on the effectiveness of a preparatory program in relation to policy decisions at a systemic level and school management decisions at a local level, and highlighted key considerations for the Queensland Government’s implementation of a full-time preparatory year across all sectors. It also commenced a longitudinal monitoring of the impact of these initiatives on children’s learning and development using a range of measures, and provided schools participating in the Preparing for School trials with feedback throughout the trials.

Setting Them Up for Strong Futures: Education as a Key to Social Capital and Human Capacity Building for Indigenous People

The project identified a number of attributes that are essential for Indigenous children if they are to be successful in education and gaining employment. It also found a large number of activities that would result in the attainment of these attributes through schooling and in the community. A key finding is the vast amount of “grey” literature on activities that may attribute to improved outcomes. Further work is needed to bring together the evidence on relevant programs, evaluate the success of all initiatives, confirm the full suite of services and to identify appropriate service delivery agents to enhance outcomes for Indigenous children and youth.

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Marching to a Different Beat: A Review of the International Literature on Youth Camp Initiatives

This research examined the International Literature around the philosophies, principles, processes and outcomes of Youth Camp initiatives in reducing offending and re-offending behaviours and increasing the success of rehabilitation efforts for young people coming in contact with the youth justice systems. The research found:

• The effectiveness of all Youth camp initiatives is uncertain.
• Wilderness and adventure camps have a greater likelihood of generating long term behavioural changes than boot camps.
• More holistic programs that work in a whole range of contexts in the young people’s lives are more effective.

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Advantage through structured flexibility - Operations of Schooling Review

Maintaining the currents operations of schooling can impact significantly in ensuring the advantaged continue to display the best outcomes while the less well off become even more disadvantaged. The review delivered a comprehensive theoretical model that mapped the relationships amongst operational aspects of schooling and identified moderating and mediating relationships known to be of relevance when predicting student outcomes. These outcomes included social, behavioural and academic indicators of success.

The study proposed new theoretical perspectives on operations of schooling to break the mould of current practice and contribute to improved, equitable and sustainable outcomes for students. The key concept of “structured flexibility” conceives of schools as physical or virtual precincts incorporating multiple phases of schooling and potentially with community-based sub-schools that may include horizontal or vertical groupings. In the proposed approach, fluid and flexible attendance patterns and timetables are provided to meet the needs of different student groups, and precincts are architecturally designed to be pedagogically sound and technology rich. The study also suggests that savings from larger, more efficient precincts, usually found in urban areas, be transferred to higher cost, smaller schools and virtual precincts, and to large poor quality educational institutions.

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Taking a Break - School to Higher Education Transitions in Queensland

The report examines six terms of reference considering the transition of students from Year 12 to higher education studies in Queensland. It focuses on current trends in student enrolments in Queensland and other states and territories in Australia, the impact of alternative pathways on student enrolments, issues affecting student enrolments and the applicability of the current transfer rate measure.

• There is a trend for Year 12 students in Queensland to choose pathways other than direct entry to higher education.
• Many high-achieving Year 12 students are opting not to enrol in higher education.
• Multiple pathways exist through which students participate in higher education by a relatively young age.
• There is a lack of Queensland-based evidence that considers location, cost, socio-economic status and students’ aspirations and perceptions of themselves as learners, and the impact on students’ participation in higher education.
• The current transfer rate measure does not facilitate comparisons to be made at both the national and international level.

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A fair go beyond the school gate? - Systemic factors affecting participation and attainment in tertiary education by low SES group

The project investigated the systemic factors affecting participation and attainment in tertiary education by Queensland students from low socio-economic status backgrounds in order to inform policy development and address professional skills shortages.

Current literature demonstrates that students from LSES backgrounds are significantly under-represented in post-secondary education and training. Further those students who do not participate are distributed proportionately over the lower vocational certificate end of the spectrum.

A myriad of reasons exists for why students successfully participate and progress in higher education. No single factor operates in isolation. Economic costs play a significant role in the decision to participate in higher education. A combination of educational opportunities and subject choice during school years, along with access to reliable and supportive advice from a range of sources represent a powerful set of enablers.

Barriers include low-level literacy levels, deficiencies in teaching and learning support, lack of parental experience of higher education, and limited educational resources at home.

Systemic policies and practices that boost participation and attainment fall into 3 general categories: provision of financial assistance, awareness raising and capacity building.

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Attraction and retention of suitably-qualified specialist roles in Queensland schools

This project investigated the barriers and enablers in attracting and retaining suitably qualified professionals to specialist teaching and non-teaching roles in Queensland State Schools. The project, funded by Department of Education, Training and the Arts, used survey instruments and focus groups of four sub-groups involving year 10-12 students, higher education students, current staff in specialist teaching and non-teaching roles and non-teaching professionals.

Critical to choosing a teaching career were job security, balance between work and home, personal fulfilment, helping people, cost and length of training, career pathway and collaborative processes in schools. Better targeted information would also help people opt for a career in education. IN rural and remote areas there are challenges in isolation and a need for peer review and support, mentoring and professional development, and career paths. A number of recommendations are made to enhance recruitment and retention.

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Indigenous Higher Education School to University Pathways Project

The purpose of this research is to identify and support Indigenous secondary students who are willing to make the transition to university education. To also raise the aspirations, confidence and educational outcomes of Indigenous secondary students. Finally, to build pathways for Indigenous students in rural and/or remote areas of Australia.

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Scenario Analysis of Queensland’s working age qualification profile to 2020

The Department of Education, Training and the Arts funded a project to develop and evaluate a range of scenarios that detail the future qualification profile by Queensland’s working population by year of age and by sex. The project developed a spreadsheet model to capture the historical structure in the data and to make statistical projections. The model is to be used to predict VET places in Queensland, with projections on a yearly basis up to 2020.

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Identifying Skills Deficiencies in Bahrain’s Labour Market (Labour Fund)

The Kingdom of Bahrain is currently reshaping its future with three key reform movements – economic, labour market and educational system. The study focused on what the Kingdom of Bahrain’s labour market requires in terms of skills and occupations over the next 10 years.

The study provided a comprehensive analysis of 13 areas of economic activity, including summary of current market situation, comparison with relevant International developments, analysis of trends, and estimates of future skills gaps. A series of consultations and a regional conference were used to develop future scenarios and action plans.

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Effective Models for Employment Based Training: Fundamentals for Effective Outcomes

This project examined effective employment based training (EBT) models within a formalised contract of training at the Australian Qualification Certificate III level and above. The focus of the research was around arrangements to maintain a balance between learning experiences in educational institutions and the workplace. The findings of the research suggest the push for contracts of training at higher VET levels may not be the preferred option for industry. Improved course based options with added work experience components might be the better way to proceed or at least offer viable options for RTOs to pursue.

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Workforce Transitions: Occupational Mobility in Queensland

The aim of this project was to examine the occupational mobility of workers in Queensland. There was a focus on professional and trade occupations within the industry sectors of civil construction, automotive and aged care to demonstrate the methodology on sectors of current policy relevance.

The predominant worker/job characteristics found to facilitate occupational mobility were never married, engaged in work-related certificate courses, previous job having been temporary/casual, and penalty rebates/bonuses. Conversely, the characteristics that were found to discourage occupational mobility included age, educational attainment of part certificate, hours worked, years worked after returning to workforce, current pay above award, promotional opportunities with current employer. There were different motivations for the three sectors investigated, with Aged Care sector motivated by enjoyment of tasks and flexible employment to stay with an employer. Automotive sector and Civil Construction were motivated more by income-related reasons. Job security was also important for Automotive sector.

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The Importance of Qualifications: Credentialism in the 21st Century

The purpose of the project was to examine the nexus between formal qualifications and employment in the workforce. A survey of 300 employers in Queensland across three industries and seven categories of employees obtained information on the use of qualifications and experience in recruiting.

The majority of employers consider formal qualifications as essential for job recruitment, with 85% valuing them as mandatory/very important. TAFE modules and short courses were more valued in construction and trade. There was consensus that relevant industry experience was an important attribute. Employers’ trust in qualifications was influenced by their experience with employees with those qualifications, Australian qualifications and the type and level. Concerns with TAFE level qualifications included the move to competency training has downgraded the skill level of tradesmen, the quality of trainers and the perception that it was too easy to become licensed in some trades.

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Strategies to Minimise the Impact of Challenging Times on Training

The purpose of this project was to identify the most effective strategies that the construction industry could put in place to ensure that apprentices and trainees continue to be employed during an industry downturn.  The project, commissioned by Construction Skills Queensland, involved a literature scan, a scenario planning workshop and the development of operational recommendations. It identified that companies need to adopt a proactive long term approach to the inevitable cyclical fluctuations. Strategies include more flexible training pathways, upward mobility of apprentices/trainees, flexible content of training, gap- flexible year, establishment of a construction training academy and extensive marketing campaigns.

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Still Putting In - Productive Ageing Scoping Project

This landmark Australian-first report found the challenges of coping with the nation’s ageing time bomb could start to be defused if age discrimination in the workplace was stamped out and mature age jobseekers given a chance. Commissioned by National Seniors Australia (NSA), the report ‘Still Putting In’ investigated the largely unknown but vital economic and social contribution the over 55s make to the nation and what barriers stop them from continuing to do so.

“This report clearly outlines that each year the Australian economy loses $10.8 billion by not using the skills and experience of older Australians who want to work- that is staggering,’’ National Seniors chief executive Michael O’Neill said. “If we are to work longer, it is critical the opportunities for mature age employment are there,’’ he said. “It is time for government, unions and business to stand up, show leadership and tackle age discrimination head-on so a person over 50 has the same chance of getting a job as someone much younger.”

Findings from a review of key data, literature and policy documents informed the development of a ‘Chart of Accounts’. Users can identify and calculate the contributions made by older Australians as well as the loss to the economy and community for not utilising the knowledge and skills that these people have built up over a lifetime. Users can also track changes in the contributions made by older Australians over time, and make predictions about future contributions by using existing data as the baseline.

Download a copy of Still Putting In policy paper - 881kb

Download a copy of the Chart of Accounts final report - 733kb

View a clip from the 7.30 report story which was informed by this research

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National Seniors Consulting Gateway

The National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre commissioned Eidos in partnership with Central Queensland University to investigate the feasibility of establishing an online gateway that links retired and semi-retired policymakers, academics and researchers (who are NSA members) to work opportunities offered by Eidos and its eight university members.  Through the gateway, the Eidos Institute and the National Seniors Productive Ageing Centre aim to engage NSA members in a dialogue to find and implement solutions to the challenge of human capital facing the future of Australian society.