Abstract
Growth in full-time educational participation since 1975 has been effective in reducing measured levels of youth unemployment. Had full-time participation not grown since 1975, it is estimated that an additional 86 400 15 to 19-year-olds would have been seeking full-time work in August 1985 and the unemployment rate for the age group would have been 31.5% rather than 20.3%. Future increases in school retention rates such as those envisaged by the Quality of Education Review Committee will have implications for levels of demand for the labour of youth as well as for the supply of youth labour. Reductions in unemployment among 18 to 19-year-olds as the result of educational initiatives will require full-time tertiary places to grow significantly. Whether growing full-time participation is of itself sufficient to improve the way in which postcompulsory education supplies productive skills to the economy is open to question. Comparisons between Australia and other OECD countries suggest that issues of vocational preparation, and not levels of senior secondary participation or higher education output, should be seen as central within Australian debate on education's link to the economy. On a number of educational expenditure, participation and output measures, Australia is at least on a par with the OECD average. However the proportion of young Australians in programs of vocational preparation is less than half the OECD average, and is the second lowest of 20 OECD countries for which data are available.
Recent Australian reports on postcompulsory education generally reject a role for schools in vocational preparation. This is probably sensible in view of the way in which the traditions and values of Australian schools limit their capacity to provide access to vocational programs. However, it begs the question of why other advanced industrial economies take a contrary view, and prevents attention being paid to questions of how the postcompulsory system as a whole can increase young people's access to recognised programs of vocational preparation. Rather than a quest for a common curriculum in the postcompulsory years, effort to create common credentials that can link schools and technical and further education (TAFE) is urged.