New research released today by The Smith Family shows how leaving school can be a difficult and complex time for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. It also shows how COVID-19 has made this more difficult and complex.
Lucas Walsh
Professor, School of Education Culture and Society; Director, Monash Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice
The new report includes a survey of more than 1000 young people who were in Year 12 in late 2020, and 33 interviews with some of these survey respondents. The same group was surveyed in 2021.
This research looks at what has happened since the group left school two years ago. It looks at whether they’re working or studying, and what’s influencing their choices and pathways after school.
The good news
The good news is that more young people from low-income families are working or studying after they’ve left school, up from 77% in 2021 to 85% in 2022.
Only 3% were not working, studying, doing unpaid work, volunteering or looking for work in 2022, compared to 5% in 2021.
But 10% of the group did not complete Year 12 – echoing a national decline in the number of young people who are not finishing school.
In recent years, school retention rates have reached record lows.
COVID’s impact
But the study also found some interviewees were pulling out of study and training because they can’t afford it. As Kim* explained:
“You pretty much have assignments back-to-back, and you’ve got placement as well […]. So you’ve got to think, ‘Can I go that long without working for an income?'”
