Page 940 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
revealed a number of things. It showed that three-quarters of those youngsters surveyed, who had completed year 12 in all Canberra colleges in 1988, gained a tertiary entrance score or their Higher School Certificate. That says something for the ACT. It also finds that a third of the youngsters were employed full time in April 1989 - that is within five months of leaving school - 30 per cent were employed part time, a quarter were not looking for work and 10 per cent were unemployed. Over half the youngsters were studying full time and 10 per cent were studying part time. Eighty per cent of the former students polled were still living at home in April 1989.
A third of those with jobs were working in the wholesale-retail industry, and 20 per cent were working in restaurants, fast food and other tourist-related activities. I believe that my colleague Mrs Nolan would be aware of that. Over 80 per cent of those studying were attending educational establishments in Canberra, the corollary being that 20 per cent of our youngsters are leaving this city. The fields of study differed markedly between males and females, with males dominating the sciences while females dominated the arts.
Most of the youngsters had neither heard of - and this is the important aspect I am coming to - nor used any of the range of government employment programs. That is a very significant point to be made. Young people's knowledge of government programs is poor, and I believe that is brought out at page 22 of the "Leaving School in the ACT" report which is a good addendum to the annual report that we are debating. It stated that a recent report from the national youth affairs research scheme indicates that a variety of strategies is required to ensure that young people have access to adequate information. The results of the survey indicate that an ACT youth information strategy should be developed as a matter of urgency.
When I was in Perth a week ago I noted that there was a definite tie-up between the youth initiatives being taken, partly out of Burdekin report and partly out of all of the other issues in society, and the employment and job search activities of the Government, and that is a hook-up that we have not made sufficiently in this Territory. It is a matter at which I am looking now, to give some added breadth to our youth affairs portfolio.
The major problem facing young people in obtaining employment is perceived to be lack of experience, and that is reported at page 23 of the report that Mr Humphries released. However, comparing the percentage of young people perceiving lack of experience as the problem - that is, 81 per cent of them - with the percentage of young persons perceiving lack of skills as a problem - that is, just on 40 per cent - you come up with a serious disparity between young persons' and employers' expectations. We must tackle that disparity in perception and expectation if we are to see our youngsters settled in what they seek in society.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .