Raising educational attainment: how young people's experiences speak back to the Compact with young Australians

Abstract

In the context of international consensus that the knowledge economy requires more highly educated people, the Australian federal, state and territory governments agreed on a set of policies and targets for lifting the minimum level of educational attainment of young people, which are analysed in Part 1 of this paper. This Compact with young Australians will have the most impact on the quarter of young people who in the past would have left school early. The second part of the paper explores the transition experiences of early leavers who move on to a ‘second chance’ school. Based on their experiences, the paper concludes that to genuinely enable more young people to complete senior secondary education requires recognition of a broad range of benefits, rather than focusing mainly on economic outcomes, and support for re-entry through second chance education rather than coercing young people to remain in mainstream schooling.

Keywords:

• educational outcomes
• marginalised students
• non-linear pathways
• school completion policy

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on a presentation at the World Congress of the International Sociology Association, 13 July 2010. It has benefited from feedback by colleagues at that conference, as well as from the helpful comments provided by the two reviewers of an earlier version of this paper.