LACK OF FUNDING DEPRIVES YOUNG AUSTRALIANS OF NECESSARY CAREER SUPPORT
Career practitioners working in schools are under resourced and time poor, in turn affecting young Australians’ ability to transition successfully and enter the workforce.
Research released today by the Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA) and McCrindle shows that over half of all school career practitioners are working part time in their role. Of those, just 1 in 3 are able to devote the entirety of their time to career education and guidance.
Career practitioners increasingly under-resourced
Research shows 1 in 3 career practitioners are provided with less than $1000 annually to undertake career development activities across their entire school.
1 in 2 schools with a population of over 1000 students have less than $3 per student to spend on career education.
Preparing young Australians for an ever-changing workforce is a growing challenge, particularly when career practitioners are under-resourced and under-funded.
“What career professionals provide is key to getting young people into the workforce. Today’s school leavers are the most digitally supplied and globally connected generation in history but also have more post-school options to consider than any previous generation – they need help transitioning from education to participation,” says Mark McCrindle, principal of McCrindle. “We know that school leavers today need life and career skills which can future-proof their employment in this changing, multi-career era and this is exactly what career practitioners provide.”
One in five unemployed Australians today is a teenager
More than 290,000 young Australians aged 15 to 24 were categorised as unemployed in January 2015.
The hardest hit were the 15 to 19 year olds, with the unemployment rate for this group hitting 20 per cent – a level not seen since the mid-1990s. Nearly 160,000 Australians aged 15 to 19 were unemployed in January, out of an overall pool of more than 780,000 unemployed.
“If we expect 15-19 year olds to be independent and resilient contributors to our society, it is important to provide them with quality career education programs whilst in school and give them access to high quality career advice, assisting them to make informed decisions about future study and work. This advice should come from qualified career advisers who meet the industry’s professional standards and have been registered by CICA.” – David Carney, CICA Executive Director.
In 2014, CICA published a School Career Development Service Benchmark Resource. This resource has been developed for Principals and leadership teams of schools to help them achieve the best value and outcomes from their career development services. For a copy of the benchmark visit www.cica.org.au/quality-benchmarking
This release references the findings from a national survey conducted by CICA of 937 career practitioners working in schools across Australia, visualized in the infographic, “A Snapshot of Career Practitioners in Australia”.
