Education and Employers
Research Digest - November 2021

Publications

How youth explore, experience and think about their future: A new look at effective career guidance 

OECD

The OECD has completed an analysis of longitudinal data from 10 countries, confirming 11 cross-national indicators of better teenage career readiness.  The study looks for evidence of better employment outcomes linked to teenage activities, experiences and attitudes.  Confirmed indicators include many guidance activities enriched by employer engagement.  A final working paper sets out the results from the research and a series of short papers explore implications for schools and public policy officials – and explore specific indicators including

Experiencing the workplace: The importance and benefits for teenagers

Career conversations: Why it is important for students to talk about their futures in work with teachers, family and friends

Getting the most out of employer engagement in career guidance

Getting a job: How schools can help students in the competition for employment after education.

Fulfilling the potential of BTEC learners: The Ark Professional Pathways programme  

Susan McGrath  

The report describes the findings of a research project that evaluated Ark’s success in achieving this aim to equip professional pathway students with the needed tools to make ambitious and successful applications to ‘top third’ universities and top 100 apprenticeships and have the necessary skills to sustain those destinations, thus eliminating any ‘gaps’ in preparation that are sometimes perceived in comparisons between BTEC and A level learners.

VET for secondary school students: Insights and outcomes 

Josie Misko, Melinda Lee & Emerick Chew 

The research examines the merits of vocational education and training (VET) for secondary school students (VfSSS) in preparing students for work or further training from the perspectives of students, parents, industry stakeholders and employers. It also explores the models of provision used in government and non-government school sectors.

Skills utilisation in the workplace: The other side of the coin  

Tabatha Griffin Kristen Osborne Patrick Lim & Jan Kabátek 

Through an analysis of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, this research examined patterns of skill underutilisation across all Australian workers, with a focus on two industry sectors: manufacturing, and early childhood education and care. Interviews with employers from these two industry sectors further explored what high performing organisations are doing to understand the skills of their workers and what, if any, mechanisms are in place to maximise skills utilisation.

Educational Research and Innovation AI and the future of Skills, volume 1 Capabilities and assessments 

OECD

The report discusses the novel methodology of OECD’s Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Skills (AIFS) project which seeks to make a difference. The project enables an understanding of the potential as well as the limits of AI capabilities at a detailed task level so we can describe more precisely how humans and AI are complementary. The project builds on a pilot which the OECD conducted in 2017, that compared the performance of adults on the literacy tests of OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills with expert judgement on the capabilities of AI on the same test.

Attracting industry experts to become VET practitioners: A journey, not a destination 

Mark Tyler & Darryl Dymock 

Through interviews and surveys with registered training organisations (RTOs) and VET practitioners, this project explores approaches to attracting industry experts to become and remain VET practitioners. Drawing on findings from the research, the authors provide strategies for consideration by government, industry, regulators, RTOs and VET practitioners that can help the journey from industry experts to VET practitioners be more rewarding and productive.

Study of Early Education and Development (SEED): Impact study on early education use and child outcomes up to age five years  

Edward Melhuish & Julian Gardiner 

The Study of Early Education and Development (SEED)2 includes a major longitudinal study designed to provide evidence on the effectiveness of early years education and to identify any short- and longer-term benefits from this investment in early education The study is being conducted by a consortium including the National Centre for Social Research, the University of Oxford, Action for Children and Frontier Economics. SEED aims to study children at age two, three, four, five and seven years to seek information on how variation in early childhood education and care experience may be associated with cognitive and socio-emotional development.

Comments

 Virtual learning for a virtual Future: A teacher’s perspective 

Tina Harrigan-James   ​​​

Reimagining learning for the future 

The Education Commission 

Career readiness in the pandemic: A summary of project findings 

OECD 

How schools can help protect young people in a recession 

OECD 

Experiencing the workplace: the importance and benefits for teenager 

OECD   

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