Determinants of post-school choices of young people. The workforce, university or vocational studies?

Abstract

This report addresses the second research question of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage project (LP120100212) What are the determinants of the transitions that underpin particular choices along these pathways? Specifically, this report seeks to identify the factors that influence the postschool choices to (1) work (2) enter university or, (3) undertake vocational studies. Underlying the importance of this analysis, there is substantive evidence captured within (our) previous reports and research commissioned by Regional Development Victoria (RDV) that points to significant differences in educational attainment between young people brought up in metropolitan compared to those raised in regional Victoria (Rowe, Corcoran and Bell 2013; Rowe, Bell and Corcoran 2014). This research indicates that young people raised in regional Victoria are 1.13 times less likely to complete Year 12 (Regional Policy Advisory Commitee 2013) and are 3.8 times less likely to complete a Bachelor degree than their metropolitan counterparts (for full details of this finding see Report 3 Rowe, Corcoran and Bell (2014b). Conversely, regional students are 1.26 times more likely to not complete a post-school qualification (see Report 4 Rowe, Corcoran and Bell (2014a)) and 2.5 times more likely to enter full-time employment immediately after completing school than their metropolitan counterparts (DEECD 2012).

Francisco Rowe

Professor of Population Data Science

My research interests include human mobility and migration; economic geography and spatial inequality; geographic data science.