Earlier this month, a senior federal Labor MP put forward a proposal to make Year 12 compulsory for all Australian students.

 

Labor backbencher Craig Emerson said the current mining-driven resource boom is creating a false future for school leavers because those jobs will not last forever.

 

The proposal attracted widespread opposition, and for good reason, according to vocational education researcher Associate Professor Erica Smith from Charles Sturt University (CSU).

 

She said the comments “showed a lack of understanding of the job prospects and education possibilities for young people these days.”

 

Extensive research into the youth labour market undertaken by Professor Smith over the past 12 years clearly shows that the current buoyant state of the youth labour market is by no means a blip on the landscape.

 

“For some years now I have been battling against a prevailing and strongly-held myth that young people are somehow at risk or disadvantaged when leaving school and looking for work. My research has consistently shown just the opposite,” Professor Smith said.

 

“Emerson’s worry that once the minerals boom is over we will return to some natural default position where youth unemployment is high is quite unfounded, and a policy to force all young people to stay at school until the end of Year 12 on this basis would be a major mistake. The situation could not be more favourable for the majority of young people”. She says a number of factors are contributing to this.

 

“The proportion of the population in the 15-24 age group is projected to grow very slowly, meaning that there will be increased competition among employers for young people. There has been a huge growth in the number of apprenticeships and traineeships offered by employers

 

“As well, vocational programs are now offered in just about every Australian school and allow young people to undertake work placements and to gain vocational qualifications that make them more attractive to employers.

 

“We are also seeing many young people from Year 9 or 10 onwards gaining employability skills several years before they leave school. Finally, we have the strong economy of the past two or three years that, according to Emerson and others, is sucking young people out of school.”

 

Current research Professor Smith is undertaking with major Australian employers of teenage labour shows that these employers’ main concern is actually attracting and retaining young workers.

 

She added the notion that if the economy falters these young people will be the ones to lose their jobs is not correct.